Page 255 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A RARE SILVER ‘CHILONG AND LINGZHI’ The present cup is unusual in its zhadou-form body and
HANDLED CUP its inclusion of mythical animals in the otherwise plant-
SONG DYNASTY inspired motif. A number of small cast-silver cups that have
floriform designs have been excavated from Song and Liao
cast with a zhadou-form body supported on a domed foot dynasty sites, such as two Song dynasty footed lotus-form
and set with a handle in the shape of sprig of lingzhi, the cups discovered in Pingqiao Village, Liyang County, Jiangsu
globular body cast in low relief with two sinuous chilong province, and now in the collection of the Zhenjiang Museum,
prowling and grasping lingzhi in their jaws, the bushy manes illustrated in Zhenjiang chutu jinyinqi [Gold and Silver Wares
flowing outward to frame their faces, all against a finely Unearthed in Zhenjiang], Beijing, 2012, pls 39-40; along with
stippled ground, a band of lingzhi heads forming the cupped three further silver floriform cups from the same site and
mouth and undulating rim, the base cast with a character period, ibid. pls. 36-38; and a related silver cup excavated
Width 3 in., 7.6 cm in a Liao tomb at You’ai Village, Baiyinhan Township, Baling
Right Banner and now in the collection of the Inner Mongolia
Museum, Huhehaote, and exhibited in Gilded Splendor:
Treasures of China’s Liao Empire (907 – 1125), Asia Society,
New York, 2006, cat. no. 92b. See a related pair of Song
dynasty silver footed floriform cups sold in these rooms, 31st
March - 1st April 2005, lot 170.

$ 40,000-60,000

宋 銀鏨螭龍紋靈芝耳盃
字：

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