Ben Janssens Oriental Art, Chinese, Indian and Souteast Asian Art and photography
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Inlaid gilt bronze belthook

China, Eastern Zhou dynasty,
Warring States, 475 – 221 BC

Length: 5 1/2 inches, 14 cm

Inlaid gilt bronze belthook

It is highly unusual for a belthook to be both gilded and silvered. The additional decorative device of glass beads reflects the richness of available materials employed during this turbulent period in the history of China. A similar belthook, lacking the glass bosses, is in the collection of the Museum of Far Eastern Art, Stockholm[1]. Another example belonging to the same group was included in the Marco Polo Seventh Centenary Exhibition, Venice, in 1954 [2].

1 See the article Chinese Agraffes in Two Swedish Collections by Bernhard Karlgren, Bulletin no. 38, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 1996, plate 54, M1.
2 See: Mostra d’Arte Cinese - Exhibition of Chinese Art, no. 112.
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