Page 68 - March 16, 2017 Chinese Art, The Harris Collection, Christies

860
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 fank
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.
4º in. (11 cm.) wide

(2)
$6,000-8,000

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.
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.

公元前三至二世紀 中國北部 鎏金銅異獸紋飾牌一對

66 THE HARRIS COLLECTION:
IMPORTANT EARLY CHINESE ART