China, 206 BC-220 AD. Finely cast, the cylindrical shaft terminating in a large dragon's head with bulging eyes, thick sinuous brows, a long upturned snout, and elegantly scrolling nostrils and horns. The hollow cylindrical cap finely cast as a dragon head with bulging eyes beneath overhanging eyebrows above a curled snout and ferocious mouth, the ears tucked along the body.

Provenance: Michael Teller, TK Asian Antiquities, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. The Sachs Family Collection, USA, acquired from the above. An Austrian private collection, acquired from the above. Michael Teller is the founder and president of TK Asian Antiquities and has worked with Chinese artifacts for several decades. As a leading authority on Chinese antiquities, he developed comprehensive scientific research techniques to authenticate and restore ancient artifacts.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, signs of weathering and erosion, corrosion, nicks, scratches, dents, and losses. The bronze with a fine, naturally grown patina with malachite and cuprite encrustations.

Weight: 86.1 g
Dimensions: Length 10 cm

Mounted to a modern acrylic stand. (2)

Known as ‘terminals’ in English, fittings of this type are usually termed yue in Chinese, though they are sometimes also called wushi. This terminal originally capped and concealed the outer end of the wooden draught pole yuan of a horse-drawn chariot chema. The yoke, placed over the horses’ front shoulders, would have been hitched to a horizontal crossbar, which was in turn attached to the draught pole, the ensemble transmitting the horses’ forward movement to the chariot itself. A viewer facing the horses could have seen this gilt bronze terminal between the horses, more or less at the level of the tops of their forelegs, depending upon the height and possible curvature of the draught pole.

Though Chinese tradition asserts that the chariot was invented during the Xia dynasty (possibly 2070 BC–possibly 1600 BC), the horse-drawn chariot is believed to have been introduced in China in the thirteenth century BC, during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC), probably from without. From the Shang through the Warring States periods, chariots were typically two-wheeled vehicles drawn by two or four horses harnessed to a single draught pole. The chariot initially was a vehicle for hunting and for projecting status, its military role apparently limited to serving as an elevated, mobile command platform, with no evidence that it was used in battle in significant numbers. After the Zhou conquest of the Shang in c. 1046 BC, however, use of the chariot in warfare became much more widespread; in fact, use of war chariots may have played a decisive role in the Zhou overthrow of the Shang.

Among the most powerful emblems in Chinese art and culture, the dragon, or long in Chinese, traditionally symbolized auspicious powers, particularly control over water, including not only rivers, lakes, and oceans, but rainfall, hurricanes, and floods as well. In the early, dualistic view of the world that Daoism would espouse, the dragon came to represent the yang, or male forces of the universe, while its counterpart, the phoenix, or fenghuang, came to stand for the yin, or female forces. In due course, the dragon was adopted as the symbol of the emperor, as the personification of yang forces, just as the phoenix was appropriated as the symbol of the empress, as the embodiment of yin forces.

Literature comparison:
A related example was excavated from the Han tomb no. 2 at Ganguan in Hanjiang, Jiangsu Province, see Wenwu, 1981, vol. 11, pl. 1, fig. 5. Compare a related gilt dragon-head finial, but cast with open mouth, dated 1^st century BC to 2^nd century AD, 14.6 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 1992.165.25.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s London, 13 May 2009, lot 56
Price: GBP 7,500 or approx. EUR 15,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A gilt-bronze 'dragon head' fitting, Han dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, modeling, manner of casting, and gilding. Note the size (14 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 25 March 2022, lot 730
Price: USD 327,600 or approx. EUR 324,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A magnificent and very rare large gilt-bronze ‘dragon head’ chariot terminal, Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 8)
Expert remark: Compare the related form and subject. Note the open mouth, incision work, and larger size (24.2 cm).