EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Details

A rare jade- and turquoise-inset gold and silver bronze garment-hook
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
Cast in high relief with a gold lion head facing the silver dragon-head hook at one end, the eyes inlaid with turquoise cabuchons, the mouth with a pale greyish-green rectangular jade plaque incised on top with scrolls, the reverse with a knop for attachment, some damage
7.5 cm. long

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20% (VAT inclusive) for this lot.

Lot Essay

Garment hooks of all different types and sizes were made in the late Eastern Zhou period, but hooks of this large size, richness of materials and complexity of design must have been very costly and could have been afforded only by the most privileged. A comparable example was included in the exhibition Inlaid bronze and related material from pre-Tang China, 11 June - 5 July 1991, no.48 and now in the Miho Museum, Japan, illustrated in the Catalogue of the colleciton, 1997, pp.190-191, no. 91, where it is noted that ornate belt hooks of this type were 'a product of the late fourth-third century B.C.', and that by the end of the century they were out of fashion and no longer found in later burials.

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