FIVE GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE CHARIOT FITTINGS

EARLY WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC

Details

FIVE GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE CHARIOT FITTINGS
EARLY WESTERN HAN DYNASTY, 3RD CENTURY BC
All of tubular form and closed at one end, comprised of two pairs of two different sizes, and a single slender fitting; all with a raised band at mid-section to divide the decoration, the pair of short fittings with a quatrefoil motif on the tops surrounding a shop mark, Ling Li, in gold characters
1¾, 3¼ and 5¼ in. (4.4, 8.2 and 13.2 cm.) high, box (5)

Provenance

Acquired in Hong Kong, 1989.

Exhibited

The Glorious Traditions of Chinese Bronzes, Singapore, 2000, no. 93.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 2002-2006.

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Lot Essay

The four-character mark, Ling Li Guo Shi, "Guo family of Li Ling", is thought to be a shop mark. The same mark is found on another chariot fitting illustrated by N. Palmgren, Selected Chinese Antiquities from the Collection of Gustaf Adolf, Crown Prince of Sweden, Stockholm, 1948, pl. 108, no. 5. A gold Ling Li mark is on a gold and silver-inlaid bronze axle cap with linchpin included in the exhibition, Inlaid bronze and related material from pre-Tang China, Eskenazi, London, 11 June-5 July 1991, no. 19.
A set of chariot fittings found in a Western Han tomb adjacent to that of Huo Qubing (140-117 BC), Mao ling, Wingping county, Shaanxi province, illustrated by C. Michaelson, "The Thousand Li Horses", Orientations, November 1999, pp. 42-3, includes four similar cylindrical fittings, fig. 3e.

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