A RARE SET OF FOUR SILVER-INLAID GILT-BRONZE WEIGHTS HAN DYNASTY

It is rare to find four weights that appear to form a set. Two gilt and silvered bronze figures of tigers, excavated at Xiaobaiyancun, Xi'an, Shaanxi province are illustrated in Kunstschatze aus China, Zurich, 1980, pl. 31, where it is noted that such figures were used in tombs as weights for the four corners of a shroud or in daily life as mat weights. Such weights are more frequently set on a flat circular base, compare four tiger-form examples illustrated in Ancient Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989, pl. 240, together with another figure of a coiled tiger, pl. 236.
Tiger form weights have also been sold at auction; see one from the Ellsworth collection sold Sotheby's New York, 19 March 2002, lot 116; another silver inlaid piece sold Christie's New York, 2 December 1985, lot 87; and one from the Montague Meyer collection sold Christie's London, 14 April 1980, lot 76.
Weights of this type can also be found in the form of a coiled qilin biting its haunches, such as the piece from the H.K. Burnet collection sold Sotheby's London, 2 April 1941, lot 341.