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6003                                                                     Provenance
A FINE AND RARE GOLD CAST ORNAMENTAL PLAQUE                              J. J. Lally, purchased January 1999.
Warring States Period
Intricately cast and detailed, the plaque centered with a pair of        On Loan and Exhibited
intertwined creatures with scaly bodies supported on two hollow          The Denver Art Museum, 1999 - 2016; (Loan 1999.2).
struts rising out of further intertwined bodies issuing composite heads
or groups of heads on eight other hollow struts, the reverse showing     A gold plaque of similar form, size and weight was published in the
concave surfaces to the intertwined bodies and circular openings to      Museum Rietberg exhibition, Gold und Silber: die sammlung Pierre
the struts.                                                              Uldry, Zurich, 1994, p. 74, cat. 13 (2 x 7.1 x 6.6cm, 134 grams). A
3/4 x 2 3/4 x 3 1/8in (2 x 7 x 8cm) 124 grams                            plaque of simpler form comprising eight animal heads was exhibited at
                                                                         the Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies at the University of Hong
US$30,000 - 50,000                                                       Kong, Celestial Creations. Art of the Chinese Goldsmith: the Cheng
                                                                         Xun Tang Collection, 2007, pp. 66-67, A31.E.
戰國時期 金獸紋飾板
                                                                         Of larger size and even more elaborate animal interlace, see the
                                                                         cast gold openwork sword hilt from the earlier Eastern Zhou period,
                                                                         preserved in the British Museum and discussed by Jessica Rawson in
                                                                         relation to jade carving in Chinese Jade: from the Neolithic to the Qing,
                                                                         London, 1995, pp. 60-66 and illustrated as fig. 46, p. 63 (9cm high).

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