J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Arts of Ancient China
March 27 - April 12, 2006
20.
A JADE-INLAID GILT BRONZE ‘DRAGON’ BELTHOOK
Warring States Period, 4th-3rd Century B.C.
the wide shaft cast with entwined winged dragons in relief, their split bodies finely detailed and richly gilded, arranged symmetrically and rhythmically entwined along the narrow sides to frame five translucent white jade oblong plaques simply carved with continuous bands, and with matching smaller jade panels in between, overlapping the larger panels and held in place by gilt bronze claws and scrolls rising from the dragons’ bodies at either side, and with a shield-shaped plaque very finely carved as a dragon’s head at the butt end, filling the frame which is cast with the wide flattened head of a dragon in gilt bronze around the edge, the opposite end with the elongated head of a dragon with clenched jaws at either side and a tapering hook ending in a turned-back dragon’s head, the underside plain, with a flat button of circular outline raised on a short stem in the center, the surface richly gilded and showing scattered bright green encrusted patination.
Length 8 5⁄8 inches (21.9 cm)
A jade-inlaid gilt bronze ‘dragon’ belthook of closely related form and design excavated from a Warring States period tomb at Daobei, Luoyang, Henan province in 1996 is illustrated in a line drawing in Wenwu, 1996, No. 7, p. 41, fig. 6.
Another similar jade-inlaid gilt bronze belthook reported to have been found at Jincun, near Luoyang, Henan province, formerly in the collection of Richard Bull Esq., was published by C.T. Loo in Chinese Bronzes, New York, 1935, no. 85 and was shown in several museum exhibitions including the Marco Polo Seventh Century Exhibition, Mostra d’arte Cinese, Venice, 1954, no. 111, China House Art Gallery, The Art of Eastern Chou, New York, 1962, no. 2, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chinese Metalwork, New York, 1966.
Compare also the slightly smaller gilt and silvered bronze belthook similarly decorated with inlaid jade plaques in the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung illustrated by Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, p. 304, no. 22:1, where the author notes that “gold, silver, bronze and iron garment hooks inlaid with jade and glass were probably among the most luxurious items of personal dress in the Eastern Zhou period.”
戰國時期 鎏金嵌玉龍紋銅帶鉤 長 21.9 厘米
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20.
A JADE-INLAID GILT BRONZE ‘DRAGON’ BELTHOOK
Warring States Period, 4th-3rd Century B.C.
Length 8 5⁄8 inches (21.9 cm)