错金银铜车马器

西汉，公元前2世纪晚期—公元前1世纪早期

1991年《镶嵌青铜器和相关器物》展展出

This simple tubular fitting is lavishly inlaid in gold and silver with a huge menagerie of recognizable animals, as well as more imaginative spirit figures.  It records auspicious omens (xiangrui) directly identifiable with many of these animals and figures who act as intermediaries and means of communication between heaven and earth - a belief widely held in the Western Han period.