Page 254 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

812
A GOLD ‘FLORAL’ HAIRPIN
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY
formed as a conjoined pair of long tapering rods, each rod
comprising a thin shaft of solid-cast 22-karat gold set with
a conical finial, the finial crafted from sheet gold worked
in repoussé with a dense composite floral pattern in high
relief against a pierced gold-mesh ground, the rods secured
together by an oval chrysanthemum-form cap crafted from
sheet gold, total weight 24.77 grams
Length 7⅛ in., 18.1 cm
Several gold hairpins of this type have been found in
Southern Song dynasty tombs in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu
province, including two pairs identical to the present, and
a closely related set in which the two rods are connected
by a shared ‘floral’ U-shaped finial and signed Wang zuo
gongfu (made by Master Wang), all in the collection of the
Zhenjiang Museum and illustrated in Zhenjiang chutu jinyinqi
[Gold and Silver Wares Unearthed in Zhenjiang], Beijing,
2012, pls 112 and 125. See also a gold hairpin of the same
type as the present in the collection of the Pengzhou City
Museum published in Sichuan Pengzhou Songdai jinyinqi
jiaocang [Song Dynasty Gold and Silver Works Stored in
Pengzhou City, Sichuan Province], Beijing, 2003, col. pl. 7.1;
and another exhibited in Jin yao fenghua: Mengdiexuan cang
Zhongguo gudai jinshi/Radiant Legacy: Ancient Chinese Gold
from the Mengdiexuan Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2013, p. 23.
812
$ 30,000-50,000

南宋 金鏨花卉紋釵

813

A SILVER ‘MAKARA’ PENDANT
SONG - YUAN DYNASTY
formed from two teardrop-shaped sheets of silver joined
back-to-back, each sheet worked in repoussé with a pair of
makara diving towards one another in pursuit of a ‘flaming
pearl’ at the center of the composition, each makara with
an animated dragon face characterized by a long upturned
snout, beady eyes, and short horns, the fish-form body with
outstretched fins and a long scaly torso sweeping upward
and flicking the broadly fanning tail, traces of gilt on one side,
the pointed tip of the pendant pierced
Height 2⅞ in., 7.3 cm
The form of the pendant and the workmanship of the metal
sides bear a strong correlation to a gold openwork ‘duck and
lotus’ pendant excavated from a tomb in Wu County, Jiangsu
province, and illustrated in Zhou Fan and Kao Cunming,
Zhongguo lidai funü zhuangshi [Decorative Clothing and
Accessories of Chinese Women throughout History], Hong
Kong, 1988, pl. 398. The style of the makaras, themselves,
closely resemble the makaras woven into a 13th century
lampa textile in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of
Art, included in the exhibition The World of Khubilai Khan:
Chinese art in the Yuan Dynasty, The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, 2010, cat. no. 41.
813
$ 15,000-20,000

宋至元 銀鏨摩羯紋帔墜
252 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART