Page 39 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

Dragon-head fittings such as the present example were thought to have
adorned furniture, chariots, and boats, as evidenced by several examples of
paintings and furniture adorned by gilt dragon-head fittings. A handscroll
of the Classics of Piety by the Southern Song Emperor Gaozong (1127-
1162), with illustrations attributed to Ma Hezhi (active 1130-1170), shows
the emperor seated in a carriage fitted with dragon-head terminals. Gilt
dragon-head fittings continued to remain popular decorative elements on
imperial furnishings, as can be seen on Emperor Qianlong’s folding armchair
(see Sarah Handler, “The Elegant Vagabond: The Chinese Folding Armchair,”
Orientations, January 1992, p. 95, figs. 13-14).

There are a few recorded Tang-dynasty dragon head-form fittings in a
variety of mediums which are stylistically similar to the present fitting. A
very similarly depicted dragon head, but in jade, in the Xi’an Antiquities
Protection and Archeological Institute, was excavated from Qujiang village
in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, and was thought to have been a fitting from a
royal boat. See Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages,
British Museum, London, 1999, no. 54. The Qujiang jade dragon head is very
similar to one also the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, that was offered
at Christie’s New York, 13 September 2019, lot 830. Another stylistically 713 (another view)
similar jade dragon-head fitting (24.7 cm.) dated to the 9th-10th century, in
the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Desmond Gure, is illustrated by Daisy Lion-
Goldschmidt and Jean-Claude Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art: Bronze, Jade,
Sculpture, Ceramics, New York, 1960, pl. 82. For an example in pottery, see
the Tang-dynasty architectural sancai-glazed dragon-head fitting illustrated
in The Masterpieces of Yaozhou Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka,
1997, no. 1. For an earlier gilt-bronze example dating to the Six Dynasties
period (AD220-589), see the dragon-head fitting of larger size (13.4 cm.) sold
at Sotheby’s London, 12 December 1989, lot 116.

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