Sotheby's. Junkunc: Arts of Ancient China II, New York, 10 Sep 2019
A very rare archaic bronze 'figural' plaque, 2nd century BC
Lot 216. A very rare archaic bronze 'figural' plaque, 2nd century BC. Length 5 5/8 in., 14.2 cm. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.
of rectangular form, well cast in openwork with two long-haired men locked in combat, each with bare chests and wearing loose trousers, flanked by two harnessed horses in profile and large trees all below a bird hovering above,.
Note: Only a small group of plaques of this design appear to be published, including one from the Xiwenguo Zhai Collection, exhibited in Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1995, cat. no. 1, where it is noted that there are two matching plaques depicting the same scene excavated from a Western Han tomb at Kexingzhuang near Xi'an, Shaanxi province; one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, acc. no. M. 160-1951; and another, formerly in the C.T. Loo Collection, illustrated in Alfred Salmony, Sino-Siberian Art The Collection of C.T. Loo, Paris, 1933, pl. XXI, fig. 2, shown together with an other plaque of the same design, but not in openwork.

