SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, 7TH-EARLY 6TH CENTURY BC

This rare gold fitting is similar to two that were excavated along with other gold objects in 1982 at a seventh-sixth century BC site in Majiazhuang, Fengxiang county, Shaanxi province, which are illustrated by Yang Junchang, Paul Jett and Chen Jianli, Gold in Ancient China: 2000-200 BCE, Beijing, 2017, p. 108, figs. 3-6 d, and are described, p. 107, as having two rivets on the back (Fig. 1); and by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 37, pl. 39, where the authors note that they were excavated from "chariot graves", and identify them as harness fittings. None of the illustrated fittings have turquoise inlay, but there do appear to be recesses which could have held inlay.