Page 76 - 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

540

A RARE SILVER SPHERICAL CENSER
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The globular censer is comprised of two, hinged openwork hemispheres A similar censer unearthed in 1970, Hejiacun, Xi’an, Shaanxi province, is
suspended on a hooked chain. The upper hemisphere has a design of illustrated in Tangdai jin yin qi, 1985, fgs. 95 and 96, where the design
leafy, scrolling vines bearing two fruits fanked by pairs of birds, which and construction are fully described, and again in Selected Treasures
alternate with two fowers above palmette-like leaves, while the lower from Hejiacun Tang Hoard, Shaanxi History Museum, Wenwu, 2003,
hemisphere has a similar design, but no birds. The interior is ftted with a pp. 222-25. Another similar censer, formerly in the Hakutsuru Museum,
gimbaled system of rings holding a gilt-bronze cup upright irrespective of Kobe, Japan, is illustrated in Tang, Eskenazi, London, 1987, no. 1. See,
the movement of the outer sphere. also, the similar example illustrated in Chinesisches Gold und Silber: Die
Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zurich, 1994, no. 201, and the example from the
1¬ in. (4.3 cm.) diam.; weight 37.5 g
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, illustrated by Jan
$60,000-80,000 Fontein and Tung Wu, Unearthing China’s Past, Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, 1973, p. 178, no. 91, where the authors note that “according to
the Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital the ‘Cardan’ method of
PROVENANCE suspension was already in use during the Western Han period.”
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953,
no. CK96. 唐 銀鏤空花鳥紋香囊
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 57.

EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 96.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 44, 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. 96.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 5d, fg. 11b.
Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cuibian [Tang Gold and Silver in
Chinese and overseas collections], Xi’an, 1989, pl. 293.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection. The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 98.
Qi Dongfang, Tangdai jin yin qi yan jiu [Research on Tang gold and silver],
Beijing, 1999, pl. 92.

Censer/perfumers of this type, formed as an openwork sphere pendent
from a chain, were used for both secular and religious purposes during
the Tang dynasty. They held a variety of aromatic substances, some to
be burned as incense, others to more slowly release their scent. The
interior of these censers has a gimbaled arrangement of two silver
bands holding a gilt-bronze, hemispherical incense receptacle in the
center in which the aromatics were placed. This mechanism insured that
the receptacle would at all times remain upright. These censers were
used to freshen interiors and clothes and perhaps to repel insects. For
a discussion of the use of aromatics, incense and perfume in the Tang
period, see E. H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, University
of California, 1963.

(another view)