EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 4TH CENTURY BC

This set of gold and jade plaques would originally have been inlaid in an alternating pattern along the center of a large garment hook, as seen on an iron example (8 ¾ in. long) illustrated by Thomas Lawton in Chinese Art of the Warring States Period, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 101, no. 51. The gold plaques on the Freer garment hook are similarly cast with entwined dragons and the jade plaques are decorated with comma patterns, although only one of the plaques has the commas carved in relief, implying that the others might not be original. Another similar gold, silver and jade-inlaid bronze garment hook of large size (8 ¼ in. long) is illustrated by Max Loehr, Relics of Ancient China from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer, The Asia Society, New York, 1965, p. 107, pl. 85c. A pair of similar garment hooks discovered in tombs of the Chu state at Xinyang, Henan province, is illustrated in Xinyang Chu mu, Beijing, 1986, pls. 64:1-3 and 65:1-2, and one is illustrated in a drawing in Kaogu Xuebao, 1985:3, p. 285, and again by Simon Kwan and Sun Ji, Chinese Gold Ornaments, Hong Kong, 2003, pp. 204-5, pl. 66.