Page 66 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

858
A PAIR OF GILT-BRONZE BELT
PLAQUES

EASTERN EURASIAN STEPPES, 2ND-
1ST CENTURY BC

Each rectangular plaque is cast in
openwork with two stallions in combat,
one being bitten on the neck and the
other on the leg. An outdoor setting is
implied by leaves along the upper edge.
Each has two tiny horizontal attachment
loops on the reverse.
2 in. (5.2 cm.) wide

(2)

$2,000-3,000

PROVENANCE

The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami,
Florida, by 1995.

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. 95, no. 8.

Similar plaques have been found at a
wide range of sites associated with the
Xiongnu all over the eastern Eurasian
steppes, refecting the expansion of the
Xiongnu empire, including in northwest
China at Daodunzi, Tongxin Xian,
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where
they were found with Han dynasty wuzhu
coins which were not minted before
118 BC. A similar gilt-bronze plaque is
illustrated in Chugoku Sengoku jidai no
bijuitsu (The Art of the Warring States
Period) Osaka Municipal Museum of
Fine Art, 1991, p. 149, no. 248.

公元前二至一世紀 歐亞草原東部
鎏金銅雄馬搏擊圖飾牌一對

64 THE HARRIS COLLECTION:
IMPORTANT EARLY CHINESE ART