A RARE SMALL GOLD OPENWORK ORNAMENT

5TH-4TH CENTURY BC

Details

A RARE SMALL GOLD OPENWORK ORNAMENT
5TH-4TH CENTURY BC
Well cast as two battling animals, one a large dragon with taotie mask head and two rows of beading following the sinuous lines of the body which is entwined with and being bitten by a mongoose-like animal with equally sinuous body and short whiskers sprouting from beside the small nose, also with small ears and two narrow bands of granulation extending from behind the front legs to the tail, the reverse concave
2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm.) long
Wt. 46.2 g.

Provenance

A.W. Bahr Collection, Weybridge, England.
Edna Bahr, Connecticut, late 1960s.

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Lot Essay

This elegant ornament is stylistically similar in its use of interlaced bodies decorated with beaded bands to that of a gold ornament of comparable size dated to the 5th-4th century BC, illustrated in Chinesisches Gold und Silber: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, 1994, p. 74, no. 13.

A Technical Examination Report is available upon request.

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