Garment hook with masks

1. Bought from Mathias Komor, New York, NY. For price, see Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920.

2. (Archibald Gibson Wenley, 1953) Suiji Umehara [Umehara Sueji] 梅原末治 records this piece as one of the Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村 discoveries, although he does  not tell from which of the Han tombs it came. At the time he published, it was in the Moriya collection 守屋孝 in Kyoto.  (See  Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 [Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937], pl. 75 and p. 43.)

3. (Thomas Lawton, 1982) Add "Late Warring States or Western Han 漢 periods, 3rd century BCE." 

In Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480--222 B.C. (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1982), cat. no. 69: Three animal masks dominate the face of the garment hook. The largest mask, modeled in sharply  defined low relief, appears on the jade plaque that is inset into the shield portion of the garment hook. Between the curiously pointed ears of this mask is a large semicircular loop filled with a greenish paste. The same green material appears in the apertures of the eyes. An incised curl pattern decorates the slightly concave border of the plaque. Around the edges of the shield are gilt bronze stylized animal forms. A smaller, undecorated jade plaque contiguous with the larger one embellishes the second monster mask, which is modeled in low relief and faces in the opposite direction from the jade plaque. This gilt bronze mask provides a transition between the shield and  the hook itself. The tip of the hook is in the shape of a three dimensional horned monster.

Extensive green accretions are found on the back of the garment hook and plain round button that protrudes  from it. Some textured impressions, apparently made by a leather belt, appear on the surface of the button.

In 1937 Umehara Sueji 梅原末治 published the garment hook as being among those Warring States objects unearthed at Chin ts'un [Jincun] 金村, Honan [Henan] 河南 province. [1] There is no certainty, however, that the Freer garment hook actually was found at  that important site.

[1] Umehara Sueji 梅原末治, Rakuyō Kinson kobo shūei 洛陽金村古墓聚英 (Kyoto: Kobayashi shashin seihanjo shuppanbu, 1937), p. 43, pl. 75:3. In Umehara's reproduction, the large jade plaque is irregularly affixed to the surface of the garment hook. At some time before the piece came to the Freer Gallery in 1953 the plaque was reattached in its present position. Among the other artifacts included in Rakuyo is a jade garment hook of similar size and decoration to the one in the Freer collection (pl. 75:1).

4. (Jeffrey Smith per Keith Wilson, July 17, 2008) "Jewelry" added as secondary classification.

5. (Susan Kitsoulis per Keith Wilson, March 14, 2011) Object Name changed from "Belt hook" to "Garment hook";  Title changed from "Gilt bronze belt hook" to "Gilt bronze garment hook."

6. (Jeffrey Smith per Matthew Clarke, July 8, 2022) Medium changed from "Bronze" to "Bronze with jade (nephrite) inlay."

7. (Najiba Choudhury per Keith Wilson, March 28, 2023) Title changed from "Gilt bronze garment hook" to "Garment hook with masks"; Period One changed from "Eastern Zhou to Western Han dynasty" to "Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period or Western Han dynasty"; Date changed from "ca. 3rd century BCE" to "475 BCE–9 CE"; changed Geography from "China" to "China, probably Henan province, Jincun"; added Chinese Translation by Jingmin; added the following to the Description field "Gilt bronze belt hook inlaid with carved and plain jade, covered here and there with green patination."