Garment hook inlaid with turquoise

A garment-hook: bronze sheathed with silver, gilded and ornamented with inlaid turquoise and other stones; on the back, lightly engraved designs showing the silver.

Historical period(s)
Late Eastern Zhou or early Western Han dynasty, 3rd century BCE
Medium
Bronze, gilded silver, and turquoise
Dimensions
H x W x D: 22.2 x 4.2 x 4.2 cm (8 3/4 x 1 5/8 x 1 5/8 in)
Geography
China
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1941.6a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Jewelry and Ornament, Metalwork
Type

Garment hook

Keywords
China, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 - 221 BCE), Western Han dynasty (206 BCE - 9 CE)
Provenance

From 1940 to 1941
C. T. Loo & Company, New York from October 1940 [1]

From 1941
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company on March 20, 1941 [2]

Notes:

[1] See C. T. Loo's stockcard no. 86941: "One bronze buckle in the form of an animal with a tiger holding on the back a running dragons, inlayed with turquoise, Warring States," C. T. Loo & Frank Caro Archive, Musée Guimet, Paris, copy in file. The object was brought to the Freer Gallery for examination on November 13, 1940.

[2] See C. T. Loo's invoice, dated March 20, 1941, copy in object file.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

C.T. Loo & Company 1914-1948

Description

A garment-hook: bronze sheathed with silver, gilded and ornamented with inlaid turquoise and other stones; on the back, lightly engraved designs showing the silver.

Published References
  • Alfred Salmony. Art and Thought, Issued in Honour of Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday. London. pl. 29, fig. 2.
  • Thomas Lawton. Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C. Washington, 1982-1983. cat. 70, p. 118.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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