A BRONZE TIGER-FORM BELT HOOK

NORTH OR NORTHEAST CHINA, 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

A BRONZE TIGER-FORM BELT HOOK
NORTH OR NORTHEAST CHINA, 6TH CENTURY BC
The tiger has a backward-turned head with open jaws, chevron stripes cast in intaglio on the curved body, and a curled tail that forms a loop. A bar terminating in an animal-head hook extends from the back of the neck, and a post with a circular button projects from the slightly concave reverse.
5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) long, stand

Provenance

Christie's London, 11 June 1990, lot 37.

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Lot Essay

A similar bronze tiger-form belt hook with more compact body is illustrated by J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1995, p. 169, no. 95, where a very similar belt hook, recovered from a site in northern Hebei province, and illustrated in Wenwu chunqiu 1993:2, p. 33, fig. 13.7, is mentioned. Another related tiger-form belt hook with more compact body is illustrated by A. Salmony in Sino-Siberian Art in the Collection of C.T. Loo, Paris, 1933, pl. XIX, no. 1.

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