Lot 259
  • 259

A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE FERRULEWARRING STATES PERIOD - HAN DYNASTY |

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • Height 4 3/8  in., 11 cm
the faceted leg inlaid in fine gold wires and silver leaves with a geometric scrolling pattern above a band of crossed scrolls encircling the foot, all set below a highly abstract bird motif in relief with a projecting head and tail, surmounted by a socket of pear-shaped section pierced on either side with a small aperture below a band of stylized confronting kuilong, the interior hollow, the surface with some minor malachite encrustation

Provenance

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

Catalogue Note

Excavated ferrules of this type were used to cap the foot of ceremonial poles or weapons, such as spears. See a gold-inlaid iron ferrule of related form, discovered, with wood remains in the socket, below an iron spear head from the Han tomb in Mancheng, Hebei province, published in Institute of Archaeology, CASS, ed., Mancheng Hanmu fajue baogao [Archaeological report of the Han tombs in Mancheng], vol. 1, Beijing, 1980, p. 110, fig. 74-2. For other related examples, see a gold and silver-inlaid bronze ferrule, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Desmond Gure, exhibited in Mostra d'arte cinese [Exhibition of Chinese art], Venice, 1954, cat. no. 99; another, from the collection of Frank Caro (successor of C.T. Loo), exhibited in Arts of the Chou Dynasty, Stanford University Museum, Stanford, 1958, cat. no. 149; two gold-inlaid bronze ferrules, published in Pierre Uldry, Chinesische Gold und Silber, Zurich, 1994, cat. nos 67 and 68; and a silver-inlaid bronze ferrule, exhibited in Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 88.