EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 11TH-9TH CENTURY BC

This rare bronze chariot fitting features the head of a deer-like hybrid animal that was popular on bronzes from the late Shang to early Western Zhou dynasties. A late Shang or early Western Zhou bronze gong vessel featuring this type of animal head is in the collection of Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, Hong Kong, 1983, pp. 66-67, no. 15. A pair of bronze zun vessels in the form of a freestanding animal of this type was found in Shigushan, Baoji city, Shaanxi province, and illustrated in Nobel Life of the Zhou: Bronzes Unearthed from the Cemetery of the Western Zhou Aristocrats at Shigushan of Baoji, Shanghai, 2014, pp. 88-97, nos. 17 and 18.