Han Dynasty
The recumbent feline elegantly cast in a tightly coiled pose, with almond eyes and curled ears framed by a small bushy mane, its head overlooking its rump, the details finely incised, the body inlaid with silver stripes. 6.7cm (2 5/8in) wide

Footnotes

漢銅鎏金銀伏虎鎮

Provenance: Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (1929-2014), no.GB126
Sotheby's New York, The Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection: Chinese Archaic & Gilt Bronzes, 19 March 2002, lot 116

來源：安思遠先生(1929-2014)舊藏，藏品編號GB126
2002年3月19日於紐約蘇富比「The Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection: Chinese Archaic & Gilt Bronzes(安思遠珍藏中國高古及鎏金銅器)」專場拍賣，拍品116號

The tiger is one of the oldest and most revered animals in Chinese history. According to Han mythology, the tiger symbolised the Western cardinal point, and in conjunction with the Green Dragon of the West, Vermillion Bird of the South and Black Tortoise of the North, positioned the burial within the spatial-temporal features of the universe. It is possible that tigers were deemed to protect the tomb occupant against the malign influences they may encounter in their afterlife.

See related excavated examples of bronze recumbent tiger paperweights, in the Shenmu County Museum, illustrated in Bronzes from Northern Shaanxi, Vol.V, Chengdu, 2009, p.964-966. Two tiger-shaped weights were also exhibited in the Biennale Des Antiquaries, illustrated by C. Deydier, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, Paris, 2014, p.49.

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- Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art