SPRING AND AUTUMN PERIOD, LATE 6TH-EARLY 5TH CENTURY BC

Based on similar fittings excavated from various Warring States sites, this fitting and others like it appear to be harness fittings. A similar fitting was excavated from a large pit filled with the remains of chariots and horses at a Warring States site at Fengxiang Doufu village in Shaanxi province. Two similar fittings, with cast gold masks, have been published. One is illustrated by Peter Y. K. Lam, ed., Celestial Creations: Art of the Chinese Goldsmith, The Cheng Xun Tang Collection, vol. I, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 62-63, no. A29; the other by Simon Kwan and Sun Ji, Chinese Gold Ornaments, Hong Kong, 2003, pp. 198-99, pl. 60. Also illustrated, pl. 198, is an example with inward-facing, silver masks surmounting each post, excavated from the tomb of King Cuo (r. 327-313 BC), State of Zhongshan, in Lingshou, Pingshan county, Hebei province, and also by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 53, no. 86. A similar pair with gold foil-covered bronze masks, from the collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, sold at Christie's New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1290.