2015: Antique chariot ornaments

Bronze
Western Zhou (9th-8th century BC)
H. 10,9cm; L. 12,1 cm; P. 11,6 cm
Former David David-Weill Collection
Acquisition of the Cernuschi Museum with the support of the Friends of the Cernuschi Museum.
MC 2016-39

These two chariot elements from the Western Zhou era of the former David-Weill collection served to protect the part of the axle between the tank body and the hub of the wheel. Their decoration formed by the profile of a buffalo bas-relief with a head with protruding horns and curved front legs is however extremely rare. It can nevertheless be compared to the objects found in Sichuan in Pengzhou on the Zhuwajie site in 1959 and 1980. The caches exhumed on this site contained vases of large format whose decor recurrently incorporates this buffalo motif. The latter allowed archaeologists to attribute these achievements to the same active workshop between Sichuan and Hubei around the year one thousand BC.
This major piece not only completes the set of tank elements kept at the Cernuschi Museum, but we can even consider that it constitutes one of its flagships.