Page 176 - 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

601

A RARE SILVER PEACH-FORM CUP
SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY
LITERATURE
The cup is shaped as a half-peach borne on a leafy branch that forms Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
the handle. The sides are fnely engraved with blossoming and fruiting Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 152.
branches that continue under the base, all against a fne Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘A Botanical Excursion in the Kempe Collection’, Bulletin
ring-matted ground. of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 37, Stockholm, 1965, pl. 16b.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
3¬ in. (9.2 cm.) wide; weight 70.3 g
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 153.
$30,000-50,000
A silver cup of peach form and Song-dynasty date, excavated in 1981 at
Liyang county, Jiangsu province, is illustrated by Han Wei and Christian
PROVENANCE Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 184, pl. 457, as well as in a
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, sketch of six silver cups of diferent shapes from the excavation, p. 183,
no. CK152. pl. 455 (middle). One of a set of six silver peach-shaped cups recovered
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. from a hoard in Hunan province, dated to the Ming dynasty, is illustrated
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 115. in Zhongguo meishu quanji, gongyi meishu bian, vol. 10, Beijing, 1987, p.
91, pl. 175. As with the present cup, the handle and leaves of these cups
EXHIBITED
have been soldered to the body, and the leaves have chased or engraved
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
veins. Peach-shaped cups were also made in other materials during the
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 152.
Song and Ming periods, including in Longquan celadon, such as the cup
London, Arts Council Gallery, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, 1958,
or washer, illustrated in Longquan qingci yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 42:4.
cat. no. 283.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The
宋/元 十二/十三世紀 銀桃式盃
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 68, an exhibition touring the United
States and shown also at nine other museums.

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