J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Bronze and Gold in Ancient China
March 24 - April 12, 2003
14.
AN INSCRIBED GOLD AND SILVER INLAID BRONZE
CROSSBOW FITTING
Late Warring States Period/Early Western Han Dynasty
3rd/2nd Century B.C.
of rectangular section, left open on one side and flat on two sides, with a raised strip down the center continuing across a rounded corner onto the closed end, the opposite end pierced with a square aperture below a wide recessed groove inlaid in silver wire with two stylized characters, decorated all over with gold and silver strapwork and scroll motifs following the shape of the sides, the plain bronze ground with smooth reddish-brown patination, the interior showing bright green corrosion.
Length 2 1⁄4 inches (5.7 cm)
The two inlaid silver characters may be read as "Gong Ku", which may be translated as "Palace Armory".
A similar inlaid bronze fitting was found still attached to the remains of a crossbow shaft in 1972 at Zhongzhoulu, Luoyang, Henan province, in a Warring States period chariot pit, illustrated in Kaogu, 1974, No. 3, pl. 3, no. 1 and in line drawing on p. 174, fig. 3, no.2, showing how the fitting was attached to the butt of a wooden crossbow, with a wooden handle projecting through the smaller square aperture.
Compare also the inlaid bronze fitting from the Collection of C. Holliger-Hasler, exhibited at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich in 1975 and illustrated in the catalogue by Brinker, Bronzen aus dem alten China, p. 123, no. 76. Another inlaid bronze crossbow fitting of similar form in the collection of the Musée Guimet is illustrated by Delacour in De bronze, d'or et d'argent - Arts somptuaries de la Chine, Paris, 2001, p. 292, Appendix fig. 6, and a pair of inlaid-bronze crossbow fittings of very similar form and design are illustrated by White, Tombs of Old Lo-yang, Shanghai, 1934, pl. IX, no. 016.
