A PAIR OF BRONZE DRAGON HANDLES

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF EDGAR AND HEDWIG WORCH

Details

A PAIR OF BRONZE DRAGON HANDLES
LATE EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY

Each cast in a crouching position with head turned around towards the upswept wings rising from the front haunches, with a projecting mane, circular ears, tufts flanking the mouth and long bifurcated tail, the body cast with bands of decoration, with an angular bracket on the underside, the surface heavily encrusted; together with two linchpins, Late Shang/Western Zhou Dynasty, each cast with a lion mask terminal above the pierced rectangular pin--dragons 6 1/8in. (15.6cm.) long; linchpins 4¼ and 4 1/8in. (10.7 and 10.5cm.) long (4)

Lot Essay

Compare a pair of stylistically similar bronze dragons in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, included in the exhibition, Chinese Bronzes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1931, Catalogue no. 148 and another pair forming the handles on a bronze hu illustrated by G. W. Weber, Jr., The Ornaments of Late Chou Bronzes, Rutgers University Press, 1973, pl. 7

For a similar linchpin see the example illustrated by M. Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art, The Ernest Erickson Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, no. 38