Page 68 - Bonhams Chinese Paintings and Works of Art Sept 15, 2015
P. 68
8072 (box)
Exhibition catalog, Mostra d’Arte Cinese, Venice, 1954 Exhibition catalog, The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, The Oriental
Ceramic Society, London, 1955
8072¤
A FINE SILVER STEM CUPV Precious Tang silver pieces have long fascinated scholars and collectors
Tang dynasty, late 7th/early 8th centuryv from East to West, their universal appeal perhaps reflecting the
Of graceful form, the deep cup exquisitely chased and engraved in cosmopolitan nature of the period in which they were produced. The
a wide band with a delicate continuous meander issuing leaves and use of precious metal and the elaborately ribbed and flanged stem cup
palmette-shaped blossoms, beneath a rib and a further floral scroll form appear to be based on Sassanian vessels, adopted in China first
below the rim, the cup above a flange decorated with saw-tooth motif as a novelty, but later integrated into religious ceremony: see M. Medley,
and all raised on a knopped stem and flaring recessed foot further Metalwork and Chinese Ceramics, London, 1972, p. 5, and Qi, Tang dai
engraved with floral scrolls. jinyinqi yanjiu, Beijing, 1999, p. 408.
2 1/2in (6.2cm) high
$15,000 - 25,000
唐七世紀晚期或八世紀早期 銀纏枝紋高足盃 Similar cups have been excavated at Tang sites in Shaanxi Province,
including one included in a burial cache unearthed at Hejiacun within
Provenance the Tang period walled city of Chang’an (modern Xi’an) and another
Christie’s New York, Important Chinese Works from the Arthur M. found in a reliquary chamber at Qingshan Temple in Lindongxian.
Sackler Collections, sale 8064, 1 December 1994, lot 62 The construction of this monastery was documented in an inscription
Desmond Gure Collection, no. 85 (label) dating the final re-building to 741: see C. Michaelson, Gilded Dragons:
Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages, London, 1999, pp. 59-63
Exhibited and 130-137 for a discussion of Tang hoards in tombs and temples.
London, Oriental Ceramic Society, The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty,
1955, no. 341 A nearly identical silver stem cup sold at Sotheby’s London,
Venice, Mostra d’Arte Cinese, 1954, no.272 Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork, Early Gold and Silver,
sale 8211, 14 May 2008, lot 47, and the same piece is illustrated in
Literature Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Art III, New York, 1980, no. 20 Stockholm, 1953, pl. 102. A related stem cup but of more squat
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver,’ Bulletin of the Museum of Far form sold at Christie’s New York, The Collection of Robert Hatfield
Eastern Antiquities, no. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 8(d) Ellsworth, Part IV, 20 March 2015, lot 727. Another cup of more similar
form, but of less precious bronze, is in the collection of the Freer
Gallery of Art, no.F1911.70, the gift of Charles Lang Freer.
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