Page 88 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Masterpieces of Chinese Gold and Silver

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A SET OF THIRTY-TWO GOLD AND SILVER SHEET
ORNAMENTS, PINGTUO
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The ornaments are all cut from thin gold or silver sheets depicting These gold and silver sheet bird and animal-ornaments would have been
various animals and birds, such as phoenixes and other birds in fight, made as pingtuo inlay for the lacquered backs of bronze mirrors of Tang-
qilin, lions or gazelles. Each ornament has fnely engraved details. dynasty date. Mirrors of this type refected the splendor and sumptuous
taste of the Tang court, and also found their way to Japan, perhaps as
The largest ornament 1¬ in. (4.3 cm.) wide, mounted in three frames (32)
diplomatic gifts. An eight-lobed mirror of this type in the Shoso-in is
$30,000-50,000 illustrated by Ryochi Hayashi, The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, New York/
Tokyo, 1975, p. 129, fg. 142. Others include the circular example inlaid
in silver with a pheonix and a peacock, as well as other birds in fight,
PROVENANCE
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Beijing,
nos. CK43 and CK123. 2005, pl. 84, and another of square quadrilobed shape in silver with
Sotheby’s London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. four phoenixes, pl. 83. An octalobed mirror of this type is illustrated in
Early Gold and Silver; 14 May 2008, lot 70. Zhongguo meishu quanji, vol. 8, Arts and Crafts - Lacquerware, Beijing,
1989, p. 80, no. 78. A fne rounded square example inlaid in gold and
EXHIBITED silver with four phoenixes is illustrated by Suzanne E. Cahill, The Lloyd
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors, vol. II, Studies, p. 162,
Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. nos. 43 and 123. fg. 1. See, also, the two gold and silver pingtuo-inlaid lacquered bronze
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The mirrors from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections sold at Christie’s New
Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 18 (nine birds), an exhibition touring the York, 18 March 2009, lot 240 and 14 September 2009, lot 34. A pair
United States and shown also at nine other museums. of gilded silver, phoenix-form cut-outs from the Falk Collection sold at
Christie’s New York, 16 October 2001, lot 189.
LITERATURE
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
唐 金銀箔鳥獸形飾一組三十二件
Stockholm, 1953, cat. nos. 43 and 123.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far
Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, fgs. 57d, 62r and 70o.
The silver ornaments: Chinese Gold & Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection,
The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn,
Ulricehamn, 1999, pls. 41 and 126.