Lot 729. A rare large jade and glass-inlaid gilt-bronze belt hook, Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220); 5 3⁄4 in. (14.5 cm.) high, cloth box. Price realised USD 88,200 (Estimate USD 80,000 - USD 120,000). © Christie's 2022

The belt hook is finely cast at one end with an owl-headed beast, grasping in its claws the bodies of two does in its claws, which hold in place a jade bi centered by blue glass inlay, all above a large bovine mask with twisted horns, from which issues an animal-head hook. 

Provenance: Galaxie Art (B. K. Wong), Hong Kong, 25 October 1986.

Note: This striking belt hook, with its use of Northern motifs, is similar to published examples including one from the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, illustrated by J. F. So and E. C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 1995, p. 71, pl. 15 and pp. 154-5, no. 75, and one included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese bronzes and sculpture, Eskenazi, New York, 28 March - 9 April 2005, no. 5. See, also, the similar example from the Stocklet Collection, Brussels, included in the exhibition catalogue, Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 12 January - 2 April 1929, p. 414, no. 1145.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 25 march 2022