Page 128 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

MASTERPIECES OF EARLY CHINESE GOLD AND SILVER | 金紫銀青 - 中國早期金銀器粹珍

566

A RARE DOUBLE SCABBARD AND KNIVES
SOUTHERN SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 10TH-14TH CENTURY
The handles of the iron knives are embellished with fnely chased gold No other double scabbard with knives appears to have been published.
sheet decorated with foliate scrolls and inlaid with small turquoise Referring to the present double scabbard and knives, Bo Gyllensvärd
cabochons. Both scabbards are of slightly diferent length and attached in ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, B.M.F.E.A., No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, states,
to each other on one side. Each is made of wood and reinforced with gold p. 45, that the shape of the scabbards and their joined confguration “is
and silver sheets decorated with birds and beasts amidst foliate scrolls mainly the same as during” the Han dynasty, and illustrates, fg. 8:b, a
chased on a dense ring-matted ground and inlaid with small line drawing of such a double scabbard found at Lo-lang. Compare, also,
turquoise cabochons. a similar silver double scabbard excavated from Qiujiawan in Shimen
County and dated to the Yuan dynasty, illustrated in Yang Zhishi et al.,
6¬ in. (16.8 cm.) long; weight 76 g (2)
Hunan Song Yuan jiaocang jin yin qi fa xian yu yan jiu (The Discovery and
$80,000-120,000 Research on Gold and Silver Wares Unearthed from Caches of Song and
Yuan Dynasties in Hunan), Beijing, 2009, pp. 196-7, pl. 394.
PROVENANCE
As early as the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 BC) blades for swords and
C. T. Loo & Co., New York, before 1941.
knives were being made in iron as well as bronze. The scabbards might
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953,
be made of leather, wood, metal, or lacquered wood, and usually had a
no. CK36.
protective metal ftting at the bottom of the scabbard, the chape, which
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
protected the scabbard’s lower edges. By the late Warring States and
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 78.
Western Han periods, jade became the preferred material for use as a
EXHIBITED chape, though ones of gold, silver and bronze occasionally still appeared.
New York, C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, 1 November 1941- The construction of this double scabbard is a continuation of those
30 April 1942, no. 202. traditions, with the scabbards carved from wood and reinforced with
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the decorative gold and silver mounts. The extensive gold mounts that cover
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 36. and protect the lower section of the scabbards have a curved bottom
thereby functioning as a chape.
LITERATURE
C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1 November 1941-
南宋/元 貼金刻花鳥紋嵌綠松石雙刀及刀鞘
30 April 1942, no. 202.
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 36.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 1a, fgs. 8a, 55d, 55g,
77p, 87r.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 34.

(another view) The present pair of knives and scabbards as published in
C.T. Loo, Exhibition of Chinese Arts, 1941-1942.
photographer unknown.