AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE INSCRIBED BRONZE PAPERWEIGHT EASTERN ZHOU DYNASTY OR LATER

the ring base crisply cast to the top in low relief with a continuous band of intertwined dragons, centered by three struts arranged in a Y-shaped formation, each decorated with pairs of short diagonal striations divided by a vertical line, all surmounted by a buckle modeled in the form of a tortoise-like mythical beast with an uplifted tail and a snake coiled on its shell, with its body forming a rectangle decorated with two bands of key fret, the beast clasping and biting on a further rectangle set to the front with a raised long-snouted mythical creature head, the underside inscribed with a eight-character inscription reading shuX jiangXX zuo zhenzhi (paperweight made by Jiang XX)
Length 5 7/8 in., 15 cm

Provenance:
C.T. Loo, New York, 2nd August 1954.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).