A RARE GILT-BRONZE BELT HOOKWARRING STATES PERIOD - HAN DYNASTY |

finely cast to the slightly arched top in high relief with a pair of addorsed creatures, their entwined bodies terminating in doe-like animal heads, one rendered with a long curled trunk issuing from its upturned snout forming the hook, the concave underside with a circular button

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

While several related gilt-bronze belt hooks with a similarly styled design are published, the present lot is notable for its hook in the form of a curled elephant trunk, a very distinctive feature which makes it particularly rare. See a gilt-bronze belt hook of a similar size, modeled with the more typical animal-head hook, decorated in the same level of intricacy with two similar animal heads and complex entwined bodies in between, illustrated in Bernhard Karlgren, 'Chinese Agraffes in Two Swedish Collections', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 37, Stockholm, 1965, pl. 55, no. N2W; another, sold in our London rooms, 11th July 1972, lot 194.

Compare two larger examples with animal-head hooks, each cast with two similar animal masks, but flanking two serpentine dragons, similarly depicted with their bodies entwined, one sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1979, lot 5, and the other sold in these rooms, 7th December 1983, lot 70. See also a gilt-bronze belt hook cast with two dragons attacking each other with their bodies curled and interlaced, sold in our London rooms, 11th July 1972, lot 193.