A silver-gilt bronze 'ram' zither tuning key, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period 東周戰國 銅鎏銀臥羊琴軫鑰

Laiyantang Collection, Hong Kong, 1990s, by repute.

來源：

傳來燕堂收藏，香港，1990年代

Originally thought to be ornamental fittings, the precise function of the present key remained a mystery until the excavation of a Han dynasty tomb in 1983, where a similar example was discovered together with matching turning pegs (see Jenny So, 'Different Turns, Different Strings: Court and Chamber Music in Ancient China', Orientations, May 2000, p. 31). According to So, because the pegs were small and packed close together on a zither, a tuning key was needed to access them for tuning.

Traditionally, these tuning keys are usually surmounted by animals and mythical beasts. See a closely related example, also surmounted by a ram, excavated in Changzhi, Shanxi province, now in the Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan, illustrated in ibid., fig. 16; another with a feline and snake in combat is in the National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C. (accession no. F1916.454); a third, surmounted by a bear, previously in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2002.201.150). A line drawing of a closely related example is illustrated in Bo Lawergren, 'The Iconography and Decoration of the Ancient Chinese Qin-Zither (500 BCE to 500 CE)', Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography, vol. XXXII, Spring-Fall 2007, pl. 9.

Compare a gilt-copper example, also surmounted by a ram, recently sold in our Now York rooms, 23rd March 2023, lot 633. See also another Warring States period tuning key surmounted by a mythical beast, sold at Christie's New York, 22nd March 2012, lot 1529; and one with two monkeys, sold in the same rooms, 15th September 2010, lot 910.