WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 2ND-1ST CENTURY BC

细节

A RARE GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FITTING
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 2ND-1ST CENTURY BC
Possibly a zither string anchor (se rui), the fitting has a square socket surmounted by a domed cap decorated in the center with a circular platform with central recess above a narrow silver, sawtooth border repeated at the bottom below six pendent petals, separated by tear-shaped recesses, and centered with a recess framed by gold inlay finely incised with a pair of confronted, long-tailed birds standing with wings raised above gold and silver scrolls.
2¼ in. (5.7 cm.) high, 2 in. (5.1 cm.) wide

来源

Eskenazi, London, no. C2176.
By descent from the Reach Family Collection.

展览

Eskenazi, London, Inlaid Bronze and Related Material from pre-Tang China, 11 June - 5 July 1991, no. 13.

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拍品专文

This fitting is similar to others that have been identified as zither string anchors (se rui), such as the example from the Therese and Erwin Harris Collection illustrated by J. So and E. Bunker in Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 1995, pp. 150-51, no. 72, where the authors discuss the use of these fittings, and how they would have come in sets of four. Such a set of four bronze se rui, of mountain shape, was found in the late second century BC tomb of the King of Nanyue, and is illustrated in Xihan Nanyue Wangmu, vol. II, Beijing, 1991, pl. 48 (1). Several others, of various designs, in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, are illustrated by O. Karlbeck, "Selected Objects from Ancient Shou-chou," BMFEA, vol. 27, Stockholm, 1955, pl. 41 (1-6), including a pair cast with down-turned petals (nos. 5 a&b), which retain traces of string wound around the square socket. Another, excavated at the Han tombs at Mancheng, which is stylistically similar to the present example, is illustrated in Mancheng Han mu fajue baogao, Beijing, 1980, vol. 1, pl. 50 (2).