Page 40 - 2020 September 21 Elegant Embellishment the RenLu Colelction, Bonham NYC

339

339
A GOLD AND AMBER HAIRPIN, BAOTOULIAN ZAN
18th/19th century
The slender needle-shaped shaft topped with a carved amber finger
citron held by layered ruyi collars and floral design finely worked in
filigree technique, all above an open lotus.
6 5/8in (16.8cm) long overall

US$3,000 - 5,000

十八/十九世紀 金纍絲嵌琥珀佛手抱頭蓮簪一件

A group of similarly designed hairpins has been identified and the
applied design is described as baoshi baotoulian. They belong to the
zan hairpin style category, characterized with a tapering thin shaft and
crowned with a bead, carved or plain, held by flower petals. The overall
design is both simple and lively. Two examples from this category
are recorded and illustrated in Zhongguo Gudai Jinyin Shoushi, Yang
Zhishui (Beijing: Gugong, 2014), vol. 3, pp. 826-827, pl. 8.42.1 & pl.
8.42.2: one excavated from a Qing dynasty tomb in Chifeng, Inner
Mongolia, the other in the Collection of the Forbidden City Museum.

Similar hairpins had also been excavated from Ming burial sites.
Compare a closely related example illustrated in Chinese Gold
Ornaments, Simon Kwan and Sun Ji (Hong Kong: Muwen Tang
Fine Art Publication Ltd., 2003), p. 483, pl. 323. See also a group
of hairpins of this type from the Carl Kempe Collection, dated to the
340 Ming dynasty, illustrated in Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe
Collection by Bo Gyllensvärd (Stockholm, 1953), p. 120, pl. 60, 61, &
62.

38 | BONHAMS