Page 37 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

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A BRONZE BELT HOOK AND
MATCHING PLAQUE WITH CHAINS

NORTH OR NORTHWEST CHINA,
5TH CENTURY BC

Each half of the ensemble is in the form
of a feline cast with whorl motifs on
the haunches and a collar of tiny dots.
Each has a backward-turned head and
stands on a bar formed by the rigid body
of a serpent terminating in a head at
each end and with two loops below the
feet. The extended tail of one animal
terminates in a bird’s head hook, the tail
of the other curves downward to form
an accommodating loop. The frst half
suspends two linked chains, the second
a single ring, and each half has a circular
button on the reverse.
3º and 2æ in. (8.3 and 7 cm.) wide

(2)

$5,000-7,000

PROVENANCE

Plaque (without chains): C. T. Loo, Paris,
1948.
Dr. Franco Vannotti, Lugano, Switzerland.
Eskenazi, London, 1989.
Plaque (with chains): Christie’s New York,
10 December 1987, lot 11 (part).
Ensemble: The Erwin Harris Collection,
Miami, Florida.

LITERATURE

Hook without chains: W. Speiser,
Ostasiatische Kunst und Chinoiserie,
Cologne, 1953, no. 171.
V. Elisseef, La Découverte de l’Asie, Paris,
1954, no. 314.
H. Brinker, Bronzen aus dem alten China,
Zurich, 1975, no. 118, p. 149.
Eskenazi, Chinese and Korean Art from
the Collections of Dr. Franco Vannotti,
Hans Popper and Others, London, 1989,
pp. 60-61, no. 20.
Ensemble: J. F. So and E. C. Bunker,
Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern
Frontier, Washington D.C., Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery, 1995, pp. 175-76, no. 102.

A similar two-part belt fastener, lacking
the chains, is illustrated in Ancient
Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection,
Japan, 1989, pl. 231.

公元前五世紀 中國北部或西北部
青銅獸形帶鏈帶鈎及青銅獸形飾牌

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