A SILVER AND GOLD-INLAID BRONZE GARMENT HOOK

LATE WARRING STATES-WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC

Details

A SILVER AND GOLD-INLAID BRONZE GARMENT HOOK
LATE WARRING STATES-WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC
The long, slender shaft is divided horizontally by silver bands into three sections, two incorporating raised V-shaped bands and each decorated with fine scale pattern outlined in silver and filled with tiny gold dots, and there are silver scrolls on the neck of the dragon-head that forms the hook. The button on the underside is inlaid in silver with a whorl motif.
7 ¼ in. (18.5 cm.) long

Provenance

The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida, by 1991.

Lot Essay

A similar use of silver bands and fine gold dots can be seen on a bronze garment hook of related shape in the Freer Gallery of Art, dated late Warring States-Western Han periods, 3rd century BC, illustrated by T. Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Washington D. C. , 1982, p. 124, no. 73.

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