finial BM-1953-1118.1

Period:Western Zhou dynasty Production date:1050BC-900BC (circa)
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:elephant (?)
Dimensions:Height: 15.20 centimetres

Description:
Bronze finial (chariot fitting). The casting is hollow, being square in cross-section with rounded corners. There are four rectangular holes, two on each side, for securing the bronze to a shaft, presumably in wood.Four heads of faces decorate the bronze: a large taotie with angular horns overhangs a second head, that of a man with parted lips showing his two rows of teeth. On the other side the upper head has short blunt horns embellished with sunken star-like points. An intaglio cross punctuated with dots appears on the creature’s cheeks. Like the human face the second lower face with ears with two sharp points is flattened against the tube’s sides. A small projecting trunk suggests that it represents an elephant.
IMG


Comments:Rawson 1987:This second finial is larger than no. 10; it is also later in date. The casting is hollow, being square in cross-section with rounded corners. There are four rectangular holes, two on each side, for securing the bronze to a shaft, presumably in wood.Four heads of faces decorate the bronze: a large taotie with angular horns overhangs a second head, that of a man with parted lips showing his two rows of teeth. On the other side the upper head has short blunt horns embellished with sunken star-like points. This creature seems to be related to animal heads with spiky horns that decorat handles on several early Zhou bronzes; both are descended from bottle-horned dragons with stars centred on the tops of their horns. An intaglio cross punctuated with dots appears on the creature’s cheeks. Like the human face the second lower face is flattened against the tube’s sides. A small projecting trunk suggests that it represents an elephant. Ears with two sharp points resemble those of the elephants on the Xing Hou gui (no. 25).It is difficult to identify the piece. However, a bronze of very similar shape, and presumably for an identical purpose, was excavated from a chariot pit in Shaanxi Baoji Rujiazhuang, and is dated to the end of the early or beginning of the middle Western Zhou. The fitting was almost certainly part of the chariot or charioteer’s equipment. The Baoji finial is decorated with a monster face rather like a taotie, grasped from behind by a figure of a man. Two deer on the back of the figure’s coat hint at connections with the nomadic tribes of the north-west. A number of other unprovenanced finials are known.