Page 65 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

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FOUR SMALL GOLD ORNAMENTS
EASTERN HAN-SIX DYNASTIES PERIOD, 1ST-4TH CENTURY AD
The group comprises: an ornament decorated as a winged fgure riding a
dragon, the bodies covered in granulation and the eye of the dragon with
a turquoise inlay, on a gilded lacquer backing; an openwork gold plaque
similarly decorated with a central fgure framed by four directional
creatures in a square frame; an openwork gold plaque cut from thin gold
sheet decorated with a fgure riding on a dragon; and an openwork gold
plaque of petal shape with silver and turquoise inlays and decorated with
numerous scrolls and volutes depicting a cicada.
1¡, æ, 1Ω and 1Ω in. (3.3, 1.9, 3.8 and 3.8 cm.) wide; frst with wood base
with magnifer, others framed (4)
$30,000-50,000
PROVENANCE
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953,
no. CK20.
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 39.
EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 20.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 10, an exhibition touring the United
States and shown also at nine other museums.

LITERATURE
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 20.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999,
pl. 17, 18, 19, 20.

These small gold ornaments represent how varied personal
ornamentation was in China in ancient times, whether made to ornament
clothing or the hair.

The frst ornament is similar to one excavated in 1979 from the tomb of
Zhang Zhen, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and now in the Nanjing Museum,
illustrated by James C. Y. Watt et al., China: Dawn of a Golden Age,
200-750 AD, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 28,
no. 10, where it is dated Eastern Jin dynasty (AD 317-420) or earlier. A
mirror-image pair, dated 1st century BC-1st century AD is illustrated by
Catherine Delacour, De bronze, d’or et d’argent: Arts somptuaires de la
Chine, Musée Guimet, 2001, p. 247. These are described as having been
fattened on a thin lacquer ground that may have been applied to bronze.
Another similar ornament is illustrated in Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry:
Chinesisches Gold und Silber, Zurich, 1994, p. 138, no. 115. Also illustrated
are two other ornaments similar to the third and fourth described
ornaments, p. 139, pls. 116 and 117 (top).
東漢/六朝 金飾一組四件

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