LATE SHANG DYNASTY, ANYANG, 12TH-11TH CENTURY BC

Compare the two pole finials of this type, each similarly surmounted by a pair of curved, scale-cast horns above a mask: the first illustrated by B. Karlgren in a Catalogue of the Chinese Bronzes in the Alfred F. Pillsbury Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1950, pl. 96, no. 73, has, like the Harris finial, a taotie mask; the other in the Frederick M. Mayer Collection, sold at Christie's London, 24-25 June 1974, lot 221, has a human mask. See, also, the example with taotie mask illustrated in "The Exhibition of Early Chinese Bronzes," B.M.F.E.A., No. 6, Stockholm, 1934, pl. V (3), which was found at Anyang.