Page 37 - Sotheby's Hong Kong Important Chinese Works of Art, Oct. 9, 2022

3617

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE COLLECTION 東周戰國時期
A PAIR OF SILVER-INLAID BRONZE CROSSBOW 銅錯銀龍首雲氣紋承弓器一對
FITTINGS,
EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 來源：
WARRING STATES PERIOD 奉文堂陳淑貞，香港，1993年
23 cm
PROVENANCE
Susan Chen & Company, Hong Kong, 1993.

HK$ 300,000-400,000
US$ 38,300-51,000

Fittings of this type have been excavated in pairs in
association with chariots, and their function has long been
a research topic of scholars. A similar pair of silver-inlaid
bronze crossbow fittings were discovered from a Warring
States tomb in Luoyang, Henan province, published
in Luoyang Museum, ‘Luoyang Zhongzhoulu Zhanguo
chemakeng [The Chariot Pit Found at Zhongzhou Road,
Luoyang]’’, Kaogu, vol. 3, 1974, p. 174, pl. 3:4. According to the
archaeological report, this pair of fittings were unearthed in
front of the wooden shaft of a crossbow, near the left side
of a chariot. Based on this finding, the report theorized that
they were fitted to the front of a crossbow shaft to support
the bow, and the upcurved terminals were meant to be the
aiming mechanism. See a reconstruction drawing illustrated
in ibid., p. 177, fig. 7. Other scholars have developed a different
theory and propose that these fittings in fact functioned as
crossbow supports on a chariot. Both fittings were attached
horizontally to the front left panel of a chariot, adjacent to the
occupants. The crossbow was placed facing down, with its
bow resting on the curved shafts and its handle positioned
obliquely upward, ready at hand for a quick draw.
Compare a similar pair of fittings included in the exhibition
Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, Eskenazi Ltd,
London, 1993, cat. no. 10; another one from the Avery
Brundage Collection is now on display in the Asian Art
Museum of San Francisco (object no.: B60B702); and a
third example was unearthed in 1954 in Xuejiaya Village,
Yongji City, Shanxi Province, and now preserved in Shanxi
Museum. For detailed discussions on the construction and
development of crossbow fittings, see Thomas Lawton,
Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and
Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC,
1982, pp. 65-7; and Liu Zhancheng, ‘Chenggongqi ji qi yongfa
[Crossbow Fitting and its Functions]’, Wenbo, vol. 3, 1988,
pp. 75-6.

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