Page 84 - 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 SMALL FINELY ENGRAVED SILVER STEM CUP
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The bell-shaped cup is raised on a knopped stem foot with spreading Cups of this goblet shape were popular during the Tang dynasty, and
base. The deep sides are fnely engraved with elaborate scrolling are found with varying decorations, often a scrolling foliate pattern, and
grapevine on a very fne ring-punched ground below a similar band at the more rarely a scrolling grapevine such as that seen on the present cup.
mouth rim, all above a petal band and a saw-tooth band encircling the A stem cup with this decoration is illustrated in Sui to no bijutsu, Osaka
circular ring at the top of the stem. Municipal Art Museum, 1976, p. 32, no. 2-23. It can also be seen on two
bottle-shaped silver vases of Tang date, illustrated by Clarence W. Kelley,
2 in. (5.1 cm.) high; weight 36.4 g
Chinese Gold & Silver in American Collections, The Dayton Art Institute,
$40,000-60,000 Dayton, Ohio, 1984, no. 49, dated early 8th century, and no. 50, dated late
8th-9th century. On both of these, birds and animals are interspersed
amidst the grape vine. A cup of this form decorated with scrolling grape
PROVENANCE
vines was unearthed from the reliquary chamber of the pagoda at the
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953,
Qingshan Temple in Lindongxian, Shaanxi province. The construction
no. CK102.
of the temple was begun in AD 736, and in AD 740 the reliquary was
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork.
placed in the subterranean chamber of the pagoda along with other
Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 47.
objects of gold, silver, bronze and ceramic.
EXHIBITED
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the 唐 銀鏨刻卷草葡萄紋高足盃
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 102.
LITERATURE
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 102.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, No. 29, 1957, fgs. 55a, 75c, 86b, 87f.
Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cui bian, [Tang Gold and Silver in
Chinese and overseas collections], Xi’an, 1989, pl. 44.
Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art
and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 104.

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