China, 475 BC-9 AD. Of cylindrical form, the individual sections finely inlaid in silver sheet and wire with a complex pattern of geometric phoenix scroll, joined at the center by a grooved coupling inlaid with bands of silver sheet, and with a rib to the upper and lower section.

Provenance: Dr. Gerald Weisbrod, Toronto, Canada, and thence by descent to Michael B. Weisbrod, Hong Kong. Michael B. Weisbrod is a noted scholar of Chinese art, who has published extensively on the subject over a time span of more than 50 years. In 1972, Michael joined his father Dr. Gerald Weisbrod’s Asian art gallery in Toronto, Canada. The father-and-son team opened their New York location on Madison Avenue in 1977, and during the next 45 years the gallery held a significant number of exhibitions, selling to museums and private collectors across the globe, eventually adding further locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, obvious losses, encrustations, minor losses to inlays, some areas with remnants of varnish, and possibly with soldering marks. Each with a rich, naturally grown patina with malachite encrustation.

Weight: 1.8 kg and 1.6 kg (excl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 45.8 cm and 45.4 cm (excl. stand)

Each mounted on an associated stand. (4)

Expert’s note:
The design on this fitting would have been cast as shallow indentations and then inlaid with silver, which was worked cold. It has been suggested by Professor Wu Hung, ‘A Sanpan Shan Chariot Ornament and Xiangrui Design in Western Han Art’, Archives of Asian Art, vol. XXXVII, 1984, p. 38, that such tubular fittings would have been used to attach the support of the canopy to the chariot. It is unlikely that fittings of this sort, with their exquisite design and workmanship, would have been used for war chariots. They would rather have been major status symbols for high-ranked dignitaries, used for leisure or burial.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related fitting illustrated by Jessica Rawson and Emma Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, no. 94, where the authors note that the decoration resembles “some of the more elaborately embroidered textiles from Hubei Jiangling Mashan and from Mawangdui at Changsha in Hunan”. Compare a closely related fitting illustrated in Kaikodo Journal, Autumn 1997, no. 49. The design for a fitting of this type, one of the four found in the tomb of the second King of Nanyue (d. 122 BC), in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, is shown in line drawings in Xihan Nanyuewang Mu, vol. 1, Beijing, 1991, p. 97, fig. 65, while in vol. 2, p. 51, fig. 2, the fitting is illustrated along with remains of the wood pole it would have encased.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Near-identical
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 31 March 2005, lot 153
Price: USD 84,000 or approx. EUR 132,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare pair of silver-inlaid archaic bronze canopy pole fittings, Warring States period
Expert remark: Compare the identical form, inlaid decoration, and scroll motifs. Note the identical size (45 cm). This pair of fittings and the present lot most likely come from the same chariot.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1147
Price: USD 40,000 or approx. EUR 53,500 (for one) converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare silver-inlaid bronze cylindrical chariot canopy pole fitting, Western Han dynasty, circa 3rd-2nd century BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, inlaid decoration, and scroll motifs. Note the size (35.6 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 November 2022, lot 870
Price: HKD 252,000 or approx. EUR 32,500 (for one) converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare silver-inlaid bronze cylindrical chariot canopy pole fitting, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period - Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, inlaid decoration, and scroll motifs. Note the much smaller size (33.8 cm).