Page 162 - 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

587

A SMALL SILVER RELIQUARY
10TH CENTURY
The reliquary is shaped as a miniature cofin engraved on each side with sizes so that they could be ftted one within the other. Examples of this
a striding dragon and a fower on each end. The cover is decorated with are the two small cofin-shaped caskets found in the Famen Temple,
four birds in fight amidst scattered scrolling clouds. Shaanxi province in 1987. The larger of the two, 10.5 cm. long, is made
of crystal, and the smaller, 6.5 cm. long, which fts inside, is made of
4¿ in. (10.5 cm.) long; weight 132 g
jade. It was this latter reliquary that was said to hold Buddha’s fnger
$20,000-30,000 bone. These two reliquaries were contained within three other caskets
of square shape: iron, gilt-silver and sandalwood, all of diminishing size,
with the outer iron casket 22 x 22 cm. in size. All of the aforementioned,
PROVENANCE
except for the sandalwood casket, are illustrated by Carol Michaelson in
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953.
Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages, The British
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
Museum, 1999, pp. 160-62, nos. 117-120. Two small parcel-gilt silver
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 101.
cofin-shaped reliquaries also found in the Famen Temple are illustrated
by Zhang Tinghao, ed., Famen Temple, Shaanxi, 1990, pp. 83 and 87.
EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
The tradition of cofin-shaped reliquaries continued into the Song
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 144.
dynasty. A silver example, 11.5 cm. at its highest end, was recovered from
LITERATURE the ‘underground palace’ of the Song-dynasty Jingzhi Temple pagoda at
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Dingzhou, Hebei province, which was built in AD 977. See the catalogue
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 144. for the exhibition, Treasures from the Underground Palaces: Excavated
Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cuibian [Tang Gold and Silver in Treasures from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province,
Chinese and overseas collections], Xi’an, 1989, pl. 327. China, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1997, col. pl. 3, and no. 3, p. 123.
As with the present reliquary, the sides are engraved, with the Green
Reliquaries of this type, made in the shape of a cofin or stone Dragon on one side and the White Tiger on the other.
sarcophagus, were produced in various precious materials including
gold, silver, crystal and jade during the Tang dynasty. The cofin-shaped 十世紀 銀鏨刻龍鳥紋舍利棺
reliquaries were made to hold sacred relics and were made in various

(another view) (cover)

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