Page 71 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

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AN UNUSUAL AND RARE SILVER ORNAMENT
NORTHWEST CHINA , 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC
The ornament is fnely cast as a stylized feline head with pointed ears The present ornament, of exceptional quality and made of precious silver,
and almond-shaped eyes above the stylized, coiled and scallop-edged would have been intended for a person of high rank. A bronze example
body. A square, openwork, cage-like loop projects from the is illustrated by Jessica Rawson and Emma Bunker, Ancient Chinese and
back of the head. Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, pp. 332-33, no. 213,
where it is ascribed to western Inner Mongolia and dated 3rd century
2¿ in. (5.4 cm.) long; weight 23.2 g
BC. Bunker compares the bronze example to the present silver ornament
$5,000-7,000 and notes that similar silver ornaments were found in excavations at
Xigouban in Jungar Qi, western Inner Mongolia. Their weights were
inscribed on their backs in late Warring States Chinese script.
PROVENANCE
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, 公元前四/前三世紀 銀獸首形飾
no. CK86.
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 30.

EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 86.

LITERATURE
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 86.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 89.

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