6TH-5TH CENTURY BC, NORTHEAST CHINA OR SOUTHEAST INNER MONGOLIA

The fine workmanship of this scabbard is the product of Chinese bronze casters, though its assymetrical serpent designs are uncharacteristic of Chinese ornamental style, and more akin to Southern Siberian prototypes. As J. So and E. Bunker discuss in Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, pp. 125-126, this scabbard bears a strong resemblance to a dagger and matching scabbard formerly in the collection of Frederick M. Mayer, sold at Christie's, London, 24/25 June 1974, lot 211, which can be linked to a group of other late 6th-early 5th century BC bronze daggers (though without scabbards) excavated from the ancient captial of the Zhongshan state, a city founded by eastward-migrating, non-Chinese tribes at Pingshan Xian, Hebei province. On the Zhongshan kings' use of Chinese bronze-casting technology, see J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, 1995, p. 60.