Four archaic bronze chariot fittings, Western Zhou dynasty

One Pair:

Collection of E.K. Burnett.

Collection of Sir Neill Malcolm K.C.B., D.S.O. (1869-1953).

Collection of Captain Dugald Malcolm C.M.G., C.V.O., T.D. (1917-2000). 

Sotheby's London, 29th March 1977, lot 35.

Both Pairs:

J.T. Tai, New York.

Offered at Sotheby's New York, 22nd March 2011, lot 40.

One Pair:

Exhibition of Early Chinese Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1951, cat. no. 79.

One Pair:

W. Percival Yetts, 'Notes on Some Chinese Bronzes,' Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 19, London, 1942-1943, pp 55-56, pl. 22.

William Watson, Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia, Edinburgh, 1971, pls 44a-b.

During the Zhou dynasty, chariots were vital for military warfare, and those of the elite were fitted with ornate finials and attachments. Referred to as tiger-heads or tiger-dragons, the ferocious feline aspect of the beast-form fittings convey power and would have been suitable ornamentation for a chariot. In his description, Watson identifies the present pair as cheek-pieces and among the earliest surviving examples of bridle bits, noting that the distinctive wide loop attachments were a Chinese innovation to secure the bit which, unlike Near Eastern fittings, were not fixed but rather inserted or tied into place (see William Watson, Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia, Edinburgh, 1971, p. 65).

A related set of four is in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge (accession nos 1943.52.27.a,b,c,d). Another closely related pair is published in Maxwell K. Hearn, Ancient Chinese Art: The Ernest Erickson Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987, nos 43 and 44. See also a group of five in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Shina Kodo Seiwa / Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Europe and America, part. III, vol. II, Osaka, 1933, pl. 115.