chariot-fitting BM-1934-0216.3

Period:Eastern Zhou dynasty Production date:400BC-300BC
Materials:bronze, gold, silver, glass,
Technique:inlaid, gilded,
Subjects:cattle
Dimensions:Length: 17.50 centimetres Width: 21.50 centimetres

Description:
Chariot fitting, made of gilded bronze and silver in the shape of a bull’s head with projecting ears and large eyes. The eyes were formerly set with glass which has now decayed. With a rectangular socket at the back with square piercing, this fitting is probably an ornamental finial to a drought pole of a chariot.
IMG


Comments:By the time of the Eastern Zhou period, chariots (originally from the steppe) had become one of the most important symbols of status and wealth in China.This gilded bull’s-head finial, which decorated the head of the draught pole, is said to have come from an Eastern Zhou royal burial ground near the capital at present-day Luoyang.