A RARE CHINESE SILVER AND GOLD INLAID IRON RUYI-SCEPTRE

16TH/17TH CENTURY

The shaft decorated with seal script characters and geometric fylfot patterns, the head cast in relief as a lingzhi, with interlocking T-shaped designs to the edges, 73cm, 1.7kg.

Provenance: from a Welsh private collection, acquired in Abergavenny in the 1950s.

Cf. Sydney L Moss Ltd, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, no.38 for a similar ruyi-sceptre.