Each cap is comprised of a tapering cylindrical tube extending from a wide circular flange around the splayed end, the trunk of each divided into two decorative registers by a central grooved band and enclosed by a wider grooved band surrounding the narrow end. Two small rectangular apertures extending vertically from the splayed ends on opposite sides of each axle are fashioned to receive the lynchpins and lock the axle in place. The lynchpins are designed with elongated shafts, rectangular in section, that pass through the two openings and are each capped by the figure of a complexly modelled feline in the round. The two registers of each axle are decorated with intertwined snakes cast in high relief, each small creature with detailed skins and bulging eyes. The flanges and horizontal bands circling the axles are silver plated while remnants of silver plating is present on the base of each flange.
The legion of snakes interlaced and in high relief allies these axle-caps with the character and disposition of bronze décor of the early Warring States period most stunningly revealed in the artifacts from the tomb of a noble discovered in Suixian Hubei province.1 In addition to the high relief décor of the present axle-caps that make this pair so intriguing is the bright silver plating that adds to the impact of the decor, silver inlay and plating common in the fashioning of bronzes at this time, exemplified here in a bronze tube inlaid and plated with silver (fig. 1) and a silver-inlaid bronze axle-cap of the 4th-3rd century BCE (fig. 2).
An extensive study on axle-caps and related caps with closed ends published in 1967 by Orvar Karlbeck presents numerous examples from the Zhou dynasty.2 Among the most elaborate of the items is one with a high relief décor comprised of minuscule birds rather than vipers yet producing the same decorative impression as the pair here (fig. 3). While the lynchpins are missing, above one of the slots is the figure of what Karlbeck identifies as a leopard, similar, in fact, to the felines of the present pair.
Interestingly, in addition to the burial of actual chariots with the deceased, chariot parts could be interred to stand for a complete chariot, and it is believed that chariot accoutrements were even manufactured exclusively for burial.3
…
1. See examples from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng (d. 433 BCE) in entry no. 1.
2. See Orvar Karlbeck, “Notes on Some Chinese Wheel Axle-capes,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, no. 39, 1967, pp. 53-74.
3. See Cary Liu, Recarving China’s Past, New Haven and London, 2005, pp. 207-210.
…
Fig. 1: Silver inlaid and plated bronze tube chariot fitting, Eastern Zhou, Warring States period, after Chugoku Sengoku Jidai no Bijutsu, Osaka, 1991, pl. 93.
Fig. 2: Silver-inlaid bronze axle-cap, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, after Jessica Rawson and Emma Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1990, no. 102, p. 193.
Fig. 3: Bronze axle-cap with high-relief décor, Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, after Orvar Karlbeck, “Notes on Some Chinese Wheel Axle-capes,”Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, 39, 1967, pl. 10, no. B17.
Details:
