ANCIENT CHINESE HAIR PINS HAN DYNASTY SILVER TESTED. Silversmithing in China can be traced back to the gilded, silver-filigree ornaments of the Zhou dynasty in the 2nd century BC (Duda 2002: 11). Shang and Zhou period tombs contain much jewellery: earrings, belt hooks and hairpins were particularly common (White 1994: 13). Hair ornaments became especially popular in the Han period (206 BC – AD 220). Both men and women wore hairpins. The principal hair ornament used by women in the Han period was the zan, a decorated hairpin which protruded from the top of the hair arrangement. Occasionally these were decorated with a buyao, an ornament attached to end of the zan which quivered as the wearer moved (Ibid. 21). Hair ornaments continued to develop through Chinese history, becoming more like crowns in the Tang period (618 – 906 AD). New innovations such as the crown-like wide diadem developed during the Song, Yuan and Ming periods. Buddhist imagery also began to be incorporated from the Tang dynasty onwards (Ibid. 23, 25).

VERY GOOD. ANCIENT ANTIQUE CONDITION AS PICTURED.