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19 mars 2019

An splendid and rare gold and silver-inlaid bronze crossbow fitting, Warring States period

253N10030_B34F5

124

Lot 124. An splendid and rare gold and silver-inlaid bronze crossbow fitting, Warring States period (475-221 BC). Length 12 5/8  in., 32 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Lot sold 175,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

the rectangular hollow section terminating in a mythical beast head detailed with large protruding eyes and flared nostrils, its lower jaw curving upward extending into a long sinuous neck and bird head depicted with rounded eyes and a hooked beak, the surface inlaid in gold and silver with abstract kuilong and scrolls, the surface with some areas of malachite encrustation 

Provenance: Alice Boney, New York, 29th May 1957.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc III (d. 1978). 

Note: Fittings of this type have been excavated in pairs in association with chariots, and their function has long been a research topic of scholars. A pair of silver-inlaid bronze crossbow fittings were discovered from a Warring States tomb in Luoyang, Henan province, published in Luoyang Museum, 'The Chariot Pit Found at Chung-chou-lu', Kaogu, no. 3, 1974, p. 174, fig. 1. According to the archeological report, this pair of fittings were unearthed in front of the wooden shaft of a crossbow, near the left side of a chariot. Based on this finding, the report theorized that they were fitted to the front of a crossbow shaft to support the bow, and the upcurved terminals were meant to be the aiming mechanism. See a reconstruction drawing illustrated in Luoyang Museum, ibid., p. 177, fig. 7.

Other scholars have developed a different theory and propose that these fittings in fact functioned as crossbow supports on a chariot. Both fittings were attached horizontally to the front left panel of a chariot, adjacent to the occupants. The crossbow was placed facing down, with its bow resting on the curved shafts and its handle positioned obliquely upward, ready at hand for a quick draw.

The present fitting is notable for its bird-head terminal, which appears to be rare among extant examples. Related examples include: a silver-inlaid crossbow fitting, also with a bird-head terminal, in the Avery Brundage Collection, published in René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage Collection, Berkeley, 1966, pl. XLIX, fig. B. Compare also a pair of gold and silver-inlaid crossbow fittings, with a serpent-head terminal, included in the exhibition Chinese Art of the Warring States Period. Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1982, cat. no. 26; another pair published in Chinesische Gold und Silber. Die Sammling Pierre Uldry, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 1994, cat. no. 28a; a single fitting from the Ernest Erickson Foundation, sold in these rooms, 6th December 1989, lot 32; and a pair of undecorated fittings sold in these rooms, 4th November 1978, lot 277.

Sotheby's. Junkunc: Arts of Ancient China, New York, 19 march 2019, 10:00 AM

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