CHINA, ancient bronze horse ornaments
$40.00
CHINA, ZHOU Dynasty?, c. 1000-500 BC, pair of horse cheek ornaments, 2 holes & corded decoration, “open mouth” ends, bronze, 113mm long, total weight 66.01g, supplier called them “jiefu,” crusty, VG
Out of stock
Description
I’ve seen a number of bronze items that seem decorative but are uncomfortably heavy to wear, especially if there would be several sewn on the coat. The idea that they were for decorating horses seems reasonable.
Zhou dynasty was a confederation of little kingdoms with a figurehead Emperor. The technology was bronze age, with just a bit of iron starting to happen at the very end. There was literary culture, science, philosophy. Lots of little wars, of course.
China is like the world: it has everything in it. The current evidence shows that there were people “everywhere” by about 12,000 years ago. In China they started writing stuff down about 5000 years ago, roughly the same time as Egypt and Sumer. The Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations are gone, but China is still here.
Over the decades I’ve been selling collectibles my market has been about 97% coins, 2% paper money, 1% everything else.
