A Rare Bronze Knife Scabbard

NORTHEAST CHINA, 7TH-5TH CENTURY BC

细节

A Rare Bronze Knife Scabbard
Northeast China, 7th-5th century BC
Of curved profile with diagonally cut slits in each side, with a row of six small birds perched along one edge between two loops at either end, with dark grey patina and some light green encrustation
9 3/8in. (23.8cm.) long, lucite stand

拍品专文

Compare the curved bronze scabbard of this type, also with birds perched along one edge and with openwork sides, but of a different arrangement and cast with rows of bosses, illustrated by E. C. Bunker, Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasion Steppes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, p. 88, no. 53. See, also, the related curved scabbard with openwork sides, but without the applied birds, excavated from a stone tomb at Xiaoheishigou, Ningcheng county, southeastern Inner Mongolia, illustrated by Xiang and Li, Wenwu, 1995:5, p. 17, fig. 22.5.