Lot 36. A small openwork gold foil on bronze plaque, Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420); 1 3/8in (3.5cm) wide. Sold for US$14,025 . © Bonhams 2001-2023

Depicting a crowned yu ren immortal reining in the winged dragon to a full stop, his hair and the dragon's tail crossing in mid-air, a wu zhu coin in front of the dragon's chest, the details further defined by lines and clusters of raised granulations, all enclosed within a linear frame, the edges of gold foil pinked and wrapped around the shield-shaped bronze plaque to secure, a small hole drilled on each short side for attachment, the bronze with malachite encrustations.

Published: Silver and Gold in Ancient China, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2012, no. 36.

Exhibited: Silver and Gold in Ancient China, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, March 16-April 14, 2012, no. 36.

Note: A very similar gold ornament excavated in 1955 from Meijiashan, Nanjing, Jiangsu province and now in the Nanjing Museum, is illustrated in Jinse jiangnan: Jiangsu gudai jinqi (Golden Jiangnan: Ancient Gold Ware of Jiangsu), Nanjing, 2008, pp. 46-47, attributed to the Western Jin dynasty (A.D. 265-317).

Another very similar gold ornament excavated in 1979 from a 4th century tomb in southern Jiangsu province, now in the Nanjing Museum, is illustrated by Watt in the catalogue of the special exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, p. 111, no. 10, where the author refers to a pair of gold plaques of this form and design in the Musée Guimet, each attached to a bronze backing, illustrated by Delacour in De bronze, d'or et d'argent: Arts somptuaires de la Chine, Paris, 2001, pp. 245-247.

Compare the pair of small gold ornaments of this type in the Muwen Tang Collection, illustrated by Kwan in Chinese Gold Ornaments, Hong Kong, 2003, pp. 296-297, no. 151. Compare also the two similar small gold ornaments illustrated by Gyllensvärd and Scott in Kinesiskt Guld och Silver I Carl Kempe-Samlingen (Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection), Ulricehamn, 1999, p. 57, no. 17 and p. 59, no. 19.

Bonhams. J. J. Lally & Co. Fine Chinese Works of Art, New York, March 20, 2023