On October 29, 2012, the second day of the China Guardian 2012 Autumn Auction entered. The national first-class cultural relic, the Qing Dynasty Qianlong Golden Peach Bark Sheath Tianzi No. 17 Baoteng Waist Knife, which attracted much attention before the auction, lived up to expectations and was sold for 7.7 million dollar.
This sword is one of the ninety imperial swords that were personally supervised by Emperor Qianlong and made by the Imperial Household Department over a period of forty-seven years. These ninety swords are numbered with the three characters “Heaven, Earth, and Man”, with thirty swords in each character. These swords symbolize the emperor’s power and majesty. Except for a small number that were allocated or lost overseas, most of these ninety swords are still collected in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
This is the only waist knife made during the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty that is known to exist among the people. The whole knife is slender and “S”-shaped, with a slightly upturned edge at the tip. It is equipped with a white jade handle, which is closed in a spiral shape at the bottom. A six-petal flower is carved in the middle, and a hole is drilled in the center of the flower, through which a yellow silk ribbon with beads and tassels is inserted. The carved decoration on the handle has a distinct Mongolian grassland style. The knife’s handle is gilded and carved, and there are flower decorations and cloud dragon patterns inlaid with gold, silver and copper wire near the handle. There is also a gold and silver wire decorative frame inlaid with the poetic name of this knife – “Bao Teng”, and the royal number of this knife – “Tian Zi No. 17”. On the other side, the same position is the four-character inscription “Made in the Qianlong Period”. The scabbard is made of wood, with a woven peach skin decoration on the outside, and a yellow hanging rope is inserted through the gilded carved loop. The material is precious, the workmanship is exquisite, the meaning is profound, and the artistic and historical values are equally important. It represents the highest level of imperial manufacturing in the “Kangxi and Qianlong Prosperous Era”.
When the auctioneer announced the starting price of 5 million dollar, many collectors rushed to bid, and it was finally sold at a high price of 7.7 million dollar.
