LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD/WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC

Details

A VERY RARE JADE, GLASS AND TURQUOISE-INLAID GILT-BRONZE GARMENT HOOK, DAIGOU
LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD/WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC
Finely cast at one end with an owl mask, grasping the bodies of two stags in its claws, the beak of the mask and the muzzles of the stags holding in place a jade bi centered by a turquoise inlay, all above a large mask with twisted horns, from which issues the animal-head hook, the eyes of all of the masks inlaid with black glass pupils and the two large masks with dimpled domed blue glass inlays, with a button on the plain reverse
6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) long, box, stand

Lot Essay

This elegant garment hook with its use of Northern motifs is similar to some other published examples including one from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, illustrated by J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 1995, p. 71, pl. 15 and pp. 154-5, no. 75, where the author describes it as a "civilized and Sinicized version of more brutal nomadic portrayals". The Sackler garment hook has does in place of the stags on the present garment hook. Another similar garment hook, also with does in place of the stags, was included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese bronzes and sculpture, Eskenazi, New York, 28 March - 9 April 2005, no. 5. A similiar example from the Stocklet Collection, Brussels, was included in Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 12 January - 2 April 1929, p. 414, no. 1145. And another included in the exhibition, Icons and Iconoclasts, Anthony Lin at Hazlitt Gooden & Fox, New York, 25 March - 1 April 2006, no. 20, appears to have the stags of the present daigou.

More from Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

View All