An especially fine archaic openwork bronze belt buckle
Beautifully cast and pierced with a tiger standing, decorated with zigzagging lines on its body, with a helpless deer with large antlers in is powerful jaws, a bright patina.
Style of: Early Han (2nd century BC), age determination uncertain
Length: 6,5cm, Height: 4cm
This type of "animal" decoration around 1000 BC was widely spread throughout Eastern Asia, Mongolia and the Ordos Plateau in China. This particular design is very similar to a tigers on a chest found in Mongolia (see A.L. Mongait, Archaeology in the USSR, pl. 7, Pelican books, 1961).
Orientation June 1989, pg.52. http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20960/lot/511/