Rare and Important Chinese double sided archaic bronze double-sided pole finial. Shang/Early Western Zhou Dynasty period. Ca. 11th/10th century BC. Featuring a cast taotie head surmounted with horns. The reverse is cast with a horned animal head. Areas of green encrustation to a dark patina. On a later wood stand. 4-1/8 in. Provenance: Featured in Sotheby's Important Chinese Works of Art: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull. 1983 (Estimate $60,000-$80,000). Formerly in the van Heusden Collection. Exhibited: Stanford University Museum, Arts of the Chou, no. 16. University Museum, Philadelphia, 1959. Published: Van Heusden Collection, pl. LV, p. 180. Comparables as per Sotheby's catalog: similar examples illustrated by d'Argence, Brundage Bronzes, pl. XXIV B and C; another illustrated by Watson, Early Chinese Antiquities, pl. 12A and B; one illustrated by Watson Archaeolody in China, pl. 53; one of somewhat larger size from the D. David-Weill Collection Minneapolis Museum, illustrated by Karlgren, Pilsbury Bronzes, pl. 90; an example with a human face on one side, from the Collection of Mrs. W.H. Moore, illustrated by Ackerman, Ritual Bronzes, pl. 64; the example sold in London, April 6, 1976, lot 12. Another example with human face was sold as part of the David David-Weil Collection, Sotheby's Paris. Dec 16, 2015 for $463,697.

In good overall condition