LATE 6TH/EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC

This unusual fitting is a handle from a vessel, and would have been cast using the lost wax process. Similar handles can be seen on a bronze zhan excavated from a mid-sixth century Chu tomb (M1) at Henan Xichuan Xiasi, illustrated by J. So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, p. 121, fig. 10.4, where a close-up of one of the handles shows a similar monster face and the intricate layered interweaving of the horns, similar to that of the present handle.