Page 38 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024

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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE COLLECTION 西漢 銀鎏金嵌寶異獸紋帶鉤
A HARDSTONE AND TURQUOISE-INLAID GILT- 來源：
SILVER ‘MYTHICAL CREATURE’ BELT HOOK, 吉賽爾，布魯塞爾，1996年6月
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY
12.5 cm
PROVENANCE
Gisèle Croës, Brussels, June 1996.

HK$ 700,000-900,000
US$ 89,500-116,000

This exquisite belt hook captures a mythical creature in
motion, pouncing delicately onto its front paws. Although
belt hooks in the shape of animals had become a fairly
common luxury by the Han dynasty, pieces of this form with
elaborate inlay in hardstone are quite rare. The use of inlay
here is particularly striking in its accentuation of the hare’s
contorted form. Compare a related belt hook with jade inlay
in a more common dragon form, illustrated in Inlaid Bronze
and Related Material from Pre-Tang China, Eskenazi, London,
1991, cat. no. 50. Not only do animals of this hare-like shape
rarely feature on belt hooks, creatures of any kind are
seldom presented with such natural dynamism. See a related
piece without inlay, of bovine form, illustrated in Chinese
Agraffes in Two Swedish Collections, B.M.F.E.A., Stockholm,
1966, pl. 61, fig. O7.

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