the rectangular sheet worked in repoussé with a buffalo spreading across the length of the plaque attached by two tigers at each side, the buffalo's head and horns in high relief, the fur indicated in finely combed lines, the tigers with thick wavy coats and long claws, all bordered by rope-twist band, pierced at the four corners and at the buffalo's snout, stand (2).

Provenance: Collection of Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939).
Collection of Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964), acquired circa 1939, and thence by descent.

Note: Four plaques of the same size and design, dating to the late Warring States period, were excavated in 1973 at Aluchaideng site, southeast of Hangjin Banner City, Yikezhao League, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. They are now in the collection of the Inner Mongolia Museum, Huhehaote, and one is illustrated in Empires beyond the Great Wall - The Heritage of Genghis Khan, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, 1993, fig. 26; and also in Zhang Jingming Zhongguo beifang caoyuan gudai jinyinqi [Ancient Gold and Silver Works from China's Northern Steppe], Beijing, 2005, pl. 21. Another plaque of this type, excavated from the same site in 1972, is published in the archaeological report by the Inner Mongolia Archaeology Team and the Inner Mongolia Museum, 'Neimenggu wenwu kaogu gongzuo sanshi nian' [30 Years of Archaeological Work in Inner Mongolia], Wenwu kaogu gongzuo sanshi nian 1949-1979 [30 Years of Archaeological Work, 1949-1979], Beijing, 1979, p. 74, fig. 2.

Harry Geoffrey Beasley was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (England) and founded the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, 11 september 2019