Rare Chanfrein en Bronze, Danglu Dynastie des Zhou Occidentaux, ca. XE siècle avant J.-C.

la partie supérieure en forme de taotie aux oreilles semi-circulaires abritant chacune un motif pyramidal, les yeux bombés, elliptiques, aux prunelles ornées de spirales, surmontés de sourcils saillants, le nez prononcé aux narines creuses décoré de rinceaux, la gueule en forme de lunule aux extrémités arrondies laissant apparaître douze dents, les pommettes marquées par deux protubérances ornées de spirales, la langue partant du menton et s'allongeant pour former la hampe concave creuse rythmée de bandes étroites horizontales de rinceaux stylisés se répétant sur la partie inférieure élargie terminée en pointe et rythmée de stries verticales, l'intérieur présente six bélières semi-cylindriques, le bronze enrichi d'une belle patine verte et brune mouchetée avec des parties rugueuses, restaurations, D.W 31/97

Bronzes Chinois des Dynasties Tcheou, T'sin & Han, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1934, no. 98.

 

Georges Salles, Bronzes Chinois des Dynasties Tcheou, T'sin & Han, Paris, 1934, cat. no. 98 (not illustrated). 

Bronze chamfrons or frontlets known as danglu served to protect the horse's forehead. They were made in many different forms and appear to have been used extensively as finds from archaeological sites of the Western Zhou dynasty illustrate, compare a group of 16 bronze chamfrons recovered from Western Zhou tombs at Baifu near Beijing, in Kaogu 1976. 4, fig. 18. A number of closely related examples from collections formed in the 1930s are known, a close example from the Collection of Oscar Raphael, London, is published in the Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, 1935-1936, cat. no. 231; compare other chamfrons from Swedish collections, illustrated by Bo Gyllensvard in 'The Exhibition of Early Chinese Bronzes', in Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Art, no. 6, 1934, pl. XXVI. 2 and 3, and Gyllensvard, 'Axel and Nora Lundgren's bequest of Chinese Bronzes', in Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 49, 1973, pl. 15a and b; a second chamfron, possibly the pair to the present piece, also from the David-Weill Collection, was illustrated in Georges Salles, Catalogue des Bronzes Chinois des Dymasties Tcheou, Ts'in et Han, Paris, 1934, cat. no. 105.