Lot 4. A fragment of an openwork gold plaque, 6th-4th century BC, 4.6cm., 1 7/8 in. Estimate 1,000 — 1,500 GBP. Lot sold 11,875 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

cast with a profile rendering of two animals coiled around each other into a circle, their legs tucked into the centre, the plaque encircled by joined bird heads with long beaks and pronounced eyes, the reverse with two rounded loops for attachment,  Weight 15g.; together with a small circular gold fitting decorated with stylised palmettes. Quantity: 2. 

Exhibited: Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. nos. 22, 34.

Literature: Gyllensvärd, 1953, pls. 22, 34.

Ulricehamn, 1999, pls. 21, 32. 

Note: Compare related examples cast in bronze and excavated from a number of Ordos sites in Inner Mongolia, illustrated in Erduosi shi qingtong qi, Beijing, 1986, p. 120, fig. 86:6-9 and pl. 81:5-7.