LATE EASTERN ZHOU PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

This fitting exhibits the outstanding quality of inlaid fittings from this period. A nearly identical gold-inlaid bronze fitting, but lacking inlaid eyes, is illustrated in the Eskenazi exhibition catalogue, Inlaid Bronze and Related Material from Pre-Tang China, London, 1991, pp. 66-7, no. 21. Another similar example, but shown with jaws closed, was excavated from Linzi district, Zibo city, Shandong province, illustrated in “Xi Han Qi Wang Mu Suizang Qiwu Keng” (The Funerary Pits Round the Princely Tombs of Qi Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty), Kaogu Xuebao, 1985, vol. 2, p. 249, fig. 3. A related silver-inlaid bronze tiger head-form fitting, dated to the late Eastern Zhou period, 3^rd century BC, is illustrated by J. Fontein and Tung Wu in Unearthing China's Past, Boston, 1973, p. 56, no. 16.