A RARE PAIR OF BRONZE CHARIOT WHEEL LINCHPINS

EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, CIRCA 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC

Details

A RARE PAIR OF BRONZE CHARIOT WHEEL LINCHPINS
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, CIRCA 11TH-10TH CENTURY BC
The L-shaped terminal of each cast in high relief with a kneeling, naked man with large head and projecting ears holding the ears of an animal head, with an arched opening beneath the bent legs of the figure, the tapering backing and platform cast with scrolls, with a pierced rectangular pin projecting from the underside of the convex platform
5 in. (12.7 cm.) high, stands (2)

Provenance

D. David-Weill Collection; Sotheby's, London, 29 February 1972, lot 101.

Literature

Hayashi Minao, In Shu jidai seidoki no kenkyu (In Shu seidoki soran ichi), Tokyo, 1986, vol. 2, p. 309, no. 11-27.
One illustrated by S. Elisséeff, "Les Motifs des bronzes chinois', Revue des arts asiatiques, 1934, pl. LXX (a).
Both: O. Sirén, A History of Early Chinese Art: The Prehistoric and Pre-Han Periods, London, 1929, vol. I, pl. 66A and B.

Exhibited

Bronzes chinois des Dynasties Tcheou, Ts'in et Han, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, 1934, nos. 93 and 94.

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Lot Essay

Other linchpins also cast with a similar combination of human and animal have been published: a pair by W.P. Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. 1, London, 1929, pl. LXIV, nos. A 114 and 115; one from the Freer Gallery of Art, by O. Sirén, A History of Early Chinese Art: The Prehistoric and Pre-Han Periods, vol. I, London, 1929, pl. 51 B; and a pair in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, col. pl. 94.

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