The bronze fittings are hollow cast, open on one end and closed at the other. They served as caps for wooden members still partially preserved and forming a tight fit within each of the two box-like rectangular forms. The largest represents the head of a fantastic horned creature with slit-like mouth, fangs, a wide snout and the surface with a broad intaglio pattern. The face is further characterized by a tightly compressed arrangement consisting of tiny comma-shaped eyebrows and minuscule eyes, small upright ears and small coiled horns. The antlers are each formed from six undulant serpents, their bodies comprising the forks and their sinuous tails the pointed prongs of the antlers. The horns curl and twist in two and three dimensions and are further animated by intaglio double-line borders and diamond and spiral patterns. The second fitting is identical to the first but was produced without antlers. The surface of each is covered with a charcoal-colored substance that might be the remnants of an original lacquer coating.
The writeup from Kaikodo Journal XX (“Worlds of Wonder”) Autumn 2001, where we originally published these two finials is attached. Descriptive and comparative material there reveals the close association of the present pieces with the mid-5th century BCE artifacts from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng in Suixian, Hubei province. The impressive bronzes from the Suixian tomb are massed with tangles of frenzied snakes, writhing, coiling, intertwined, creating explosive three-dimensional surfaces. The viper was not only an immensely effective decorative tool but also must have been chosen to dominate the day because of its presence and significance to the folk who inhabited the middle reaches of the Yangtze in ancient times. Whether these intriguing bronzes with their flamboyant openwork images were produced through traditional piece-mold casting with the multiple parts welded together or by way of lost-wax casting, the results are stunning.
Further, the tomb finds are important here because they suggest how the Kaikodo finials were used. The smaller one could have been used in a number of contexts. However, pictured here is an image for a stand for stone chimes and a detail of one of the finials at the end of the upper crossbeam from the Suixian tomb (figs.1-2). The present finial is technically and stylistically very similar and might well have also been used in a like context.
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Fig. 1: Bronze stand for chimes, Eastern Zhou, Warring States period, from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng (d. 433 BCE), Suixian, Hubei province, after Zhongguo kaogu wenwu zhimei, vol. 5: Changquo dixia leigun; Hubei Suixian Zeng Houvi mu, Beijing, 1994, pl. 12.
Fig. 2: Bronze finial from a stone-chime stand crossbeam, Eastern Zhou, Warring States period, from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng (d. 433 BCE), Suixian, Hubei province, after Zeng Houyi mu wenwu yishu, Wuhan, 1991, pl. 92.
Finial with antlers – details
Fitting without antlers – details
