A hardstone and turquoise-inlaid gilt-silver 'mythical creature' belt hook, Western Han dynasty | 西漢 銀鎏金嵌寶異獸紋帶鉤

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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.