Page 50 - 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

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A FINE AND RARE SMALL SILVER BOWL
LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 3RD-2ND CENTURY BC
The small bowl is of lobed heart shape with a fat bottom. The shallow, The unusual raptor-head handle and the heart-shape of the present
rounded sides are decorated in repoussé with a row of inverted ‘water cup can also be seen in a similar silver wine cup of larger size (10.7 x
drops’. A short handle in the form of a raptor head with gold eyes projects 10.5 cm.) in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, attributed to
from the rim on one side. North-central China, 4th-3rd century BC, illustrated by Jenny F. So and
Emma C. Bunker, Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier,
2Ω in. (6.3 cm.) wide; weight 40 g
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C,, 1995, pp. 152-53, no. 73.
$60,000-80,000 (Fig. 1) This cup, and another like it illustrated by Mizuno Seiichi, Bronzes
and Jades of Ancient China, Tokyo. 1959, p. 154B, has plain rather than
the lobed sides of the Kempe cup. Also illustrated by Mizuno, pl. 154A,
PROVENANCE are two silver cups of heart shape, one with handles, and all are said to
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, come from Jincun. The same heart shape, as well as an upright handle
no. CK76. in the shape of a bird’s head can be seen in a small lacquer ladle dated
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Western Han, illustrated in Lacquerware from the Warring States to the
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 22. Han Period Excavated in Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Museum/
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, no. 58. See, also, the small
EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the jade cup of this shape with carved sides illustrated by Thomas Lawton,
Chinese Art of the Warring States Period, Freer Gallery of Art, 1982, p.
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 76.
156, no. 103.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 33, an exhibition touring the United
The water-drop or petal-shaped lobed decoration on the sides of
States and shown also at nine other museums.
this rare silver cup can be found on other silver vessels made both in
LITERATURE Achaemenid Persia (550-300 BC), such as the phiale (shallow drinking
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, bowl) with inscription in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated by Zhixin
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 76. Jason Sun, Age of Empires: Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties, The
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2017, p. 173, fg. 75, and the
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 79. parcel-gilt silver circular box with cover (5 3/16 in. diam.), dated Western
Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 9), excavated in 1994 from the tomb of the
戰國晚朝 銀鳥首形小盌 prince of Chu, Beidongshan, Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, also illustrated by
Sun, pp. 172-73, no. 94. A similar box with cover is illustrated in Nanyue
King’s Tomb of the Western Han, vol. II, Beijing, 1991, pl. XXIII (1).

Fig. 1 A silver and parcel-gilt cup, late Eastern Zhou (770-256 BC) or Warring
States (475-221 BC) Purchase, Arthur M. Sackler Gift, 1974.
© The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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