A RARE BRONZE TWO-PART TIGER-FORM BELT BUCKLE WITH LOOSE RING SUSPENSION CHAINS

It is extremely rare to find a two-part belt hook of this type with double chains of this length surviving intact. Two similar double-belt buckles also with double felines, one with the pair of felines shown in the same biting-serpent pose, lacking the linked chains, and the other pair with heads turned back to confront one another over their shoulders, with one of the double chains left almost intact, both from the Therese and Erwin Harris Collection, are illustrated by E. Bunker and J. So in Traders and Raiders: on China's Northern Frontier, Seattle, 1995, pp.174-76, nos. 101 and 102. A similar belt buckle in the form of a pair of felines linked by their tails, but lacking the chains is illustrated, in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pl.230.