TWO GILT-BRONZE GARMENT HOOKS

WARRING STATES-HAN DYNASTY, 5TH-3RD CENTURY BC

Details

TWO GILT-BRONZE GARMENT HOOKS
WARRING STATES-HAN DYNASTY, 5TH-3RD CENTURY BC
The smaller is cast at one end with a monkey, its body centered by a turquoise paste inlay carved with a bird, and the shaft has a recess for further inlay. The other is cast at one end with a dragon crawling over the top of an angled bar that terminates in an angular scroll, while the long, slender shaft terminates in a dragon-head hook. Both have a circular button on the reverse.
2 7/8 and 3 7/8 in. (7.2 and 9.9 cm.) long

Provenance

The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida, by 1995.

Lot Essay

Two garment hooks of the same type as the second example are illustrated by O. Karlbeck in B.M.F.E.A., no. 27, Stockholm, 1955, pl. 26 (2), and another is illustrated in Chugoku Sengoku jidai no bijutsu (The Art of the Warring States Period), Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art, 1991, p. 105, no. 155.

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