A RARE GLASS-INLAID GILT AND SILVERED-BRONZE BELT HOOKWARRING STATES PERIOD - HAN DYNASTY |

crisply cast to the slightly arched top as a stylized bat-like mythical creature, detailed with a pronounced snout, large almond-shaped eyes, folded wings and small claws, its body centered by a circular dark green glass bead adorned with seven small swirls, the gently curved hook terminating in an animal head, the silvered underside set with a small button

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Skillfully incorporating two distinctively different materials and transforming them into a functional work of art, the present belt hook demonstrates the high level of craftsmanship of the metal and glass artisans during the late Eastern Zhou to Han dynasty. While a small group of elaborate belt hooks of this type are known, it is extremely rare to find another example made in the form of a bat-like creature such as the present. Extant examples are usually modeled in the form of an owl mask grasping two animals above a beast head, such as two, similarly set to the center with a glass bead, sold in these rooms, one from the collection of Hon. Hugh Scott, 7th December 1983, lot 69, and the other from the Alice and Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, 19th November 1982, lot 139. Compare also another related belt hook, set with a circular bi disc centered by a glass bead, from the Stoclet Collection, published in Umehara Sueji, Shina-Kodo Seikwa / Selected Relics of Ancient Chinese Bronzes from Collections in Europe and America, pt. III: Miscellaneous Objects, vol. I, Osaka, 1933, pl. 79; one exhibited in Traders and Raiders on China's Northern Frontier, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1995, cat. no. 75; and another, inlaid with a small turquoise in the center of the bi disc, sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 2006, lot 156.