ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2002 Metal - Item 11

11 A very fine and rare gilt-bronze dragon-head finial Western Han dynasty Length: 9I in, 24.2 cm the hollow, cylindrical finial terminates in a dragon’s head. The head is boldly and superbly cast with a single S-shaped horn, two bulging eyes beneath heavy brows, small ears, a bulbous nose, a flat muzzle, a wide-open jaw revealing its teeth and curling tongue, and two flame-like, winged projections sweeping backwards. The bronze is gilt and bears extensive green and red encrustation. A canopy-frame ornament with an extremely similar head is illustrated in Yu et al, Selected Bronzes in the Collection of the Poly Art Museum, pp. 331–2. A related example, dated Six Dynasties, sixth century AD, is illustrated in Catalogue of the Miho Museum (The South Wing), no. 120, pp. 232–3. Watt illustrates a related example in The Arts of Ancient China, fig. 49, pp. 40–1, dated Eastern Han, that he states probably comes from near Yangzhou, Jiangsu province; and for another, dated late Eastern Zhou, that is said to have been excavated from one of the horse pits near the entrance of a princely tomb near Luoyang, see Stern, Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art Handbook, no. 32.14, p. 19.