Page 60 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

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A VERY RARE MINIATURE GOLD BOTTLE
EASTERN HAN-JIN DYNASTY, 3RD-4TH CENTURY AD
The extremely delicate hu-shaped bottle is elaborately applied with This superb miniature gold bottle is a fne example of the use of gold
patterns of volutes, lozenges and scrolls formed by gold wires and granulation, mostly seen on small articles or ornaments of Han and
teardrop-shaped cloisons, all edges with granulation, and some inlayed Six Dynasties date. The technique of granulation was developed in
with turquoise-colored glass. The shoulder is set with loop handles the ancient Near East as far back as the 3rd millennium BC, and frst
attached to a short chain. The base is inscribed with a single character, appeared in China on gold ornaments associated with the nomads of
jiu, possibly a goldsmith’s surname. the northern plains at the end of the 4th century BC. By the Western
Han period, 3rd century BC, this technique, in which tiny gold spheres
The bottle, æ in. (1.8 cm.) high; weight 9.4 g
are attached to a gold background by difusion bonding rather than
$40,000-60,000 soldering, had been adopted by Chinese goldsmiths, and continued in
popularity into the Six Dynasties period and through the Tang into the
early Song periods.
PROVENANCE
The George Eumorfopoulos (1863-1939) Collection. A similar miniature gold hu-form bottle with a link handle, that still
Sotheby’s London, 5-6 June 1940, lot 503. retains its cover, is one of three miniature gold ornaments decorated
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, with granulation, and dated to the Han dynasty, in the Nelson-Atkins
no. CK16. Museum, Kansas City, illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns and William
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Watson, Chinese Art, The Minor Arts, New York, 1963, pp. 32-33, pl.
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 38. 11. (Fig. 1) Gold granulation can also be seen on several miniature gold
ornaments of Han-dynasty date found in high-ranking tombs illustrated
EXHIBITED
by Yang Boda, ‘Ancient Chinese Cultures of Gold Jewellery and
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
Ornamentation’, Arts of Asia, Vol. 38, No. 2, March-April 2008, pp. 100-
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 16.
102, pls. 39, 40, 42 and 43. Other small gold ornaments with granulation
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The
are illustrated in Celestial Creations: Art of the Chinese Goldsmith, The
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 9, an exhibition touring the United States
Cheng Xun Tang Collection, vol. I, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese
and shown also at nine other museums.
Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007, pls. B06A and B
and pl. B11. A pair of similarly decorated gold bottles, attributed to the
LITERATURE
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Eastern Han dynasty, is illustrated by Simon Kwan and Sun Ji, Chinese
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 16. Gold Ornaments, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 116.
Zhang Linsheng, ‘Zhongguo gudai di jingjin gongyi’, The National Palace
Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, No. 14, 1984, pl. 54, fg. 9. 東漢/晉 粟金提梁小瓶
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 15.
Qi Dongfang, Tangdai jin yin qi yan jiu [Research on Tang gold and silver],
Beijing, 1999, p. 217, fg. 2-33.

(detail) Fig. 1 Bottle, Chinese, Eastern Han dynasty (25-
220 CE). Gold with turquoise inlay, 1 9/16 inches (4
cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
City, Missouri. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson
Trust, 34-33; 40-50; 34-32. Photo courtesy
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Media Services /
Jamison Miller