C.T. Loo, New York, 29th October 1954.

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

The present pair of belt buckles belongs to a group of hinged metal plaques used to decorate belts during the Six dynasties. Similar belt plaques, usually finely decorated with dragons in openwork, have been excavated from important tombs, including a set from the tomb of Zhou Chu (242-297), excavated at Yixing in Jiangsu province. See two similar gilt-bronze hinged belt buckles from a surviving nine-piece belt set, attributed to the Jin dynasty, illustrated in Jessica Rawson and Emma Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, cat. no. 143; another pair, previously from the Frederick M. Mayer Col𒉰lection and attributed to the Six dynasties, was sold at Christie's London, 25th June 1974, lot 144.