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• Auction House:
  Bonhams Australia
• Sale Name:
  Asian Art
• Sale Date:
  07 Dec 2022 ~ Session 1 (Lots 1 - 143) 2pm (AEDT)
  07 Dec 2022 ~ Session 2 (Lots 201 - 294) 6pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  45
• Lot Description:
  A pair of bronze axle caps and linchpins, Wei and Xia
  Spring and Autumn period (770 to 476 BCE)
  with a fitted box, the axle caps 13.5cm long (4).
• Provenance:
  The Hsiao family collection, Melbourne
• Notes:
  The practice of burying such worldly goods as chariots and horses with deceased rulers and aristocrats began in the Shang dynasty and continued throughout the Bronze Age and the Qin dynasty. While chariots made of wood have long since perished, many of their fittings have survived, including bronze axle caps such as this lot. A closely related pair of axle caps was excavated at Bianjiazhuang in Long county, Shaanxi in 1986, and currently in the collection of Long County Museum. The patterns on the axle caps are almost identical, so are the animal masks on the linchpins except for the additional smaller tiger heads on the masks in the current lot, making this lot more desirable. The Long county pair was exhibited with The First Emperor: China's Entombed Warriors, Art Gallery of New South Wales. See the exhibition catalogue, Liu Yang and Edmund Capon, Sydney, 2010, p. 64-65, no. 32.
• Estimate:
  A$2,000 - 3,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Oriental

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.