A Chinese money-shaking tree, yao qian shu, Eastern Han Dynasty, 25 to 220 A.D. Greenish patinated bronze, intricately worked in places, and glazed ceramic. A rider on a ram adorns the conical base with green lead glaze. The trunk is composed of solar rings with finely flamed coronae, each encircling a small bear. The trunk extending into four rows of delicate branches with animals, mythical creatures and coins, the tip similarly structured. Although the coins in the branches gave rise to the name of the "money-shaking tree", their primary purpose is not to ensure the prosperity of the dead in the afterlife, but to serve as an offering to the gods. Taoist mythology is represented in these trees by Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West in her paradise. Money-shaking trees are extremely rare and known to derive only from South West China. A thermoluminescence expertise prepared by the Kotalla laboratory in 2000 confirms the date. Height approx. 135 cm. Provenance: German private collection, supposedly going back to E.A. Voretzsch, who published on bronzes in 1924. For an in-depth discussion of these money trees, see "Orientations", September 1997, pp. 67-84. Condition: II -