A PAIR OF GILT-BRONZE RECTANGULAR BELT PLAQUES

NORTH CHINA, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC

Details

A PAIR OF GILT-BRONZE RECTANGULAR BELT PLAQUES
NORTH CHINA, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC
Each plaque is cast with two addorsed ungulates shown in a recumbent position facing the outer edge and with their back legs rotated up over their backs where they flank their tails which terminate in confronted roe heads, all within a double rope border. Each has two attachment loops on the reverse which bears a woven pattern indicating that the plaque was cast using the lost-wax/lost-textile process.
4 ¼ in. (11 cm.) wide

Provenance

Christie’s New York, 30 May 1991, lot 217.
The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

Literature

J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Washington D.C., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1995, p. 145, no. 66.

Lot Essay

Similar plaques have been found at sites associated with the Xiongnu. A similar pair is illustrated by J. Rawson and E. C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 346-47, no. 225.

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