Belt hook
China, Eastern Zhou period, 4th-3rd century
BC
This arched belt hook is made from silvered and
gilt bronze inlaid with jade plaques. Jade was first used to
embellish belts and other dress hooks in the seventh and sixth
centuries BC, at a time when other luxurious materials such as
gold, silver and semi-precious stones were being used to enrich
both weapons and belts. Garment hooks of both gold and jade have
been discovered in excavations dating to the Eastern Zhou (771-221
BC) and Han periods (206 BC - AD 220). The jade examples appear to
be imitatations of those made in
gold.
This is an example of
a belt hook where jade was used as an inlay, rather than for the
complete artefact. It has imaginary animal faces at both ends, and
the hook itself is the head of a small creature, its neck drawn
down to the animal's head that lies at the top of the main
panel. Between the heads the bronze is cast to frame the settings
of four rectangular jade plaques with incised
taotie (monster faces).
These pieces of jade were probably recycled from some older jade
artefact that had broken. Two buffaloes lie back to back along the
main section of the hook, their bodies in sharply angled planes.
Small glass beads cut in half are set at either
end.
J. Rawson, Chinese jade: from the Neolith (London, The British Museum Press, 1995, reprinted 2002)