A PAIR OF BRONZE TIGER-SHAPED ORNAMENTS

CIRCA 5TH-3RD CENTURY BC

Details

A PAIR OF BRONZE TIGER-SHAPED ORNAMENTS
CIRCA 5TH-3RD CENTURY BC
Each is cast as a tiger with a partially devoured rabbit dangling from its jaws, and a rabbit head forms the tip of the tail. The eye, ear, fanged jaws and paws are delineated by openings and D-shaped openings in the body refer to the stripes of the hide. Each has two slender vertical straps for attachment on the reverse.
4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm.) wide

Provenance

J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 18 March 1996.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

Exhibited

New York, J. J. Lally & Co., Early Dynastic China, 1996, no. 27.

Lot Essay

A similar but smaller (2 ¾ in. long) tiger plaque, lacking the addition of the rabbit, in the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, is illustrated by E. C. Bunker et al., “Animal Style” Art from East to West, The Asia Society, New York, 1970, p. 120, no. 94, where it is dated first half 5th century BC. See, also, the example, also lacking the rabbit, illustrated by A. Salmony, Sino-Siberian Art in the Collection of C. T. Loo, Paris, 1933, pl. XII (5).

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