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Lot Essay
This rare bronze axle cuff is one of three related fittings that have appeared on the market in the past 40 years. The present cuff was first published in The Chinese Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1935. In 1977 it was sold in the Malcom Collection sale at Sotheby’s London, along with another very similar fitting (lot 20). The similar fitting appears to be the example subsequently sold in the British Rail Pension Fund sale at Sotheby’s London, 12 December 1989, lot 10, and is now in The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. no. 1990.30.
A third axle cuff from the David-Weill collection was included in the Mostra D’Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, no. 57, and was sold at the David-Weill sale at Sotheby’s Paris, 16 December 2015, lot 28.
A similar axle cuff with variations in detail from the Raphael Bequest is illustrated by J. Rawson in Ancient China, Art and Archaeology, London, 1980, pl. 73. The author states (p. 102) that "the coiled dragons on this bronze are seen on some of the earliest Zhou bronzes, presumably cast in Shaanxi."
See, also, Kaogu, 1980:4, pp. 362-64, figs. 3, 5 and 6 for line drawings of how such fittings attached to the chariot and a similar fitting of more simple design discovered in a Western Zhou chariot-and-horse pit at Keshengzhuang, Chang'an, p. 363, fig. 4.
A third axle cuff from the David-Weill collection was included in the Mostra D’Arte Cinese/Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice, 1954, no. 57, and was sold at the David-Weill sale at Sotheby’s Paris, 16 December 2015, lot 28.
A similar axle cuff with variations in detail from the Raphael Bequest is illustrated by J. Rawson in Ancient China, Art and Archaeology, London, 1980, pl. 73. The author states (p. 102) that "the coiled dragons on this bronze are seen on some of the earliest Zhou bronzes, presumably cast in Shaanxi."
See, also, Kaogu, 1980:4, pp. 362-64, figs. 3, 5 and 6 for line drawings of how such fittings attached to the chariot and a similar fitting of more simple design discovered in a Western Zhou chariot-and-horse pit at Keshengzhuang, Chang'an, p. 363, fig. 4.