TWO BRONZE BELT HOOKS

NORTHEAST CHINA, 6TH CENTURY BC

Details

TWO BRONZE BELT HOOKS
NORTHEAST CHINA, 6TH CENTURY BC
One is cast as a recumbent tiger with backward-turned head, a hook extends from one edge and a circular button is on the reverse. The smaller is cast as a recumbent horse with tiny circular cells for inlay, its tail forming the hook and with two buttons on the reverse.
4 1/8 and 2 3/8 in. (10.5 and 6 cm.) wide

Provenance

The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida, by 1995.

Literature

J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Washington D.C., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1995, pp. 168 (tiger) and 170 (horse), nos. 94 (tiger) and 96 (horse).

Lot Essay

In Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier, p. 170, J. F. So suggests that the small horse-shaped fastener with the hook and two buttons, rather than the usual single button, might have been attached to the belt vertically, with the buttons inserted through slits in the belt and the hook used to suspend personal accessories. Also illustrated, fig. 96.1, is another similar horse-shaped belt hook from Jundushan, Yanqing Xuan, north of Beijing.

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