Page 20 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

Tang silver dishes of this shape are rare; even so, another, virtually identical—
parcel-gilt silver dish with decoration of a rhinoceros bearing flowers but
with the rhinoceros facing the viewer’s right—i.e., a “mirror image” of the
present dish—was also formerly in the Kempe collection, presumably a pair
to the present dish, and is illustrated in Giuseppe Eskenazi’s A Dealer’s
Hand (Plate 79). A gold dish or basin excavated in 1970 at the Hejiacun
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site and now in the Shaanxi History Museum claims a similar shape but is
undecorated and lacks a footring. 6
Its stout body divided into three parts and covered with scales, the
rhinoceros is shown with two horns, a long tail, and four short legs with three
toes on each foot. Though stylized, the representation accurately captures
the form and bulk of the rhinoceros. Although some of the scales that cover
the beast’s body are rounded, most are trefoil in shape and recall the form of
clouds in Tang paintings and other arts.
Both archaeological and literary evidence attest that rhinoceroses lived
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in China, even in northern China, in early times. Due to over-hunting
the rhinoceros had become extinct in northern China by Tang times but
was still known in parts of southern China. Exotic animals were typically
offered to the Chinese emperor as tribute by foreign states, nations in
Southeast Asia often presenting rhinoceros horns and hides as gifts and
Fig. 1. Line drawing of the silver bowl, lot 709. After Han
occasionally presenting live animals, as well, which were kept in imperial
Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cuibian [Tang Gold and
parks in the capital. 8
Silver in Chinese and Overseas Collections], Xi’an, 1989,
pl. 121.
Best-known among early archaeological representations of the rhinoceros
圖一 銀獸紋盌線圖 (是次拍賣拍品編號709)，載於韓偉， include 1) the famous Shang-dynasty, bronze rhinoceros-form zun wine
《海內外唐代金銀器萃編》，西安，1989年，圖版121。
vessel in San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum (B60B1+), which was discovered
at Liangshan, Shandong province, in 1843, 2) the celebrated late Warring
States to early Western-Han, gold-inlaid bronze, rhino-form wine vessel
The second vessel considered here is the parcel-gilt silver dish emblazoned on unearthed in 1963 at Doumacun, Wuxiang, Xingping County, Shaanxi
its floor with repoussé decoration of a rhinoceros standing foursquare, facing province and now in the National Museum of China, Beijing, and 3) the
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the viewer’s left, and bearing on its back three stylized blossoms displayed in Western Han, late second century BC, gilt bronze rhinoceros sculpture from
a lotiform stand. The walls of this relatively shallow “rhinoceros dish” expand the tomb of Liu Fei—known as King Yi of Jiangdu (169–128 BC; r. 153–128
outward in a gentle S-curve, terminating in a lightly everted lip. A raised BC)—that was excavated in 2010 from Tomb 1 at Dayunshan, Xuyi, Jiangsu
bowstring line encircles the floor’s central medallion, while a pair of raised Province, that is now in the collection of the Nanjing Museum, and that was
bowstring lines accentuates the dish’s lip. Like the rhinoceros, the bowstring exhibited at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. 10
lines are gilt. The exterior of the dish is plain. A short, vertical footring
circumscribes the flat base, which, though undecorated, includes an intaglio Seldom represented in the centuries between the fall of Han (206 BC–AD
impression, or echo, of the repoussé rhinoceros design on the dish’s interior. 220) in AD 220 and the rise of Tang in 618, the rhinoceros again makes an
和的S曲線，口微撇。盤心正中有鎏金淺雕犀牛紋，周邊凸飾弦紋一匝，盤口亦綴兩道凸 犀形尊，今藏舊金山亞洲藝術博物館 (館藏號B60B1+)； 2) 陝西省興平縣吳鄉豆馬村
起的弦紋，弦紋像犀牛紋般鎏金。盤外光素，底平，圈足矮直，大致光素，僅陰刻與盤 1963年出土的戰國晚期至西漢初年犀形尊，這一重器現藏北京中國國家博物館。 ３）
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內相仿的壓花犀牛紋。 江蘇盱眙大雲山2010年西漢江都王陵1號墓，即易王劉非(公元前168-前127年)墓出土的
銅鎏金犀牛，現藏南京博物院，2017年曾於紐約大都會博物館展出。 10
這類形制的唐代銀盤屈指可數；然而，另有一例如出一轍且同屬坎普舊藏的局部鎏金
犀牛馱花紋銀盤，惟其犀牛面朝觀者右方，應是本拍品的配對之作， 並經 埃斯卡納齊 漢亡 (公元220年) 至唐代立國 (公元618) 的數百年間，犀牛形象雖難得一見，但在唐代
著錄於《 A Dealer’ Hand》 (圖版 79)。 家村遺址曾於1970年出土一件金盤或盆，今藏 藝術作品中卻再度風行。位於西安的陝西歷史博物館藏一例何家村1970年出土的局
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s
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陝西歷史博物館，其器型近似本拍品，但光素無紋，亦無圈足。 6 部鎏金犀牛紋小銀盒。 此外，日本神戶白鶴美術館亦珍藏一件唐代單卧犀紋銀盒。
1991年，戴克成 (Christian Deydier) 藝廊展出一件唐代銀盌，此盌雖形狀有別，但亦飾鎏
此處犀牛由三部份組成，軀幹敦壯，遍體覆鱗，生二角 (鼻上的角較短，眉心的角較長)
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金壓花卧犀紋，以鏨花珍珠地局部鎏金纏枝花卉為地。 除了這批銀製的犀牛紋盤、盌
，長尾，四足粗短，每足三趾。它絲絲入扣地描寫了犀牛之形態與壯碩，亦如實反映了
和盒之外，私人珍藏中尚有一例青銅立犀小像，此像業已經熱發光鑑定為唐代文物，
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奇蹄類動物 (即每足腳趾數目為奇數) 的特徵，而不是像某些中國藝術品般，賦之予類
日本奈良市正倉院珍藏唐代銅鏡亦飾一對行進犀牛，鏡的背面結合了「平脫」工藝，「
似馬的分蹄或單趾。雖有一部份犀牛鱗甲呈弧形，狀若魚鱗，但大多形似三葉紋，宛若
平脫」一般是指漆嵌金銀箔，而此鏡則是黑漆嵌螺鈿。 另有一例橢圓形四瓣鎏金盌
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唐代繪畫及其他藝術品中的雲紋。
殘件，其盌心飾一卧犀，斷代為公元825至850年,乃是公元830年在印尼勿里洞島沿岸沉
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考古及文學證據均顯示，犀牛確曾棲息中國，早期甚或出現在華北地區。及至唐代，由 沒的阿拉伯獨桅帆船上之物。 該艘商船自阿拉伯啟航，雖順利抵達中國，回程時卻在
於過度捕獵，華北犀牛幾已捕殺殆盡，但華南地區仍有其蹤影。然而，外邦不時向唐室 勿里洞島離岸1.6公里處遇險沉没。（圖二）
進貢各式奇珍異獸，東南亞國家更不時進獻犀角、犀皮，間或還以活犀牛為貢禮，長安 商及周初，犀牛以其革之堅見稱，常用於製作甲冑。再者，戰國時期乃至更早的年代，人
宮苑便成囿養這些動物之所。 8
們深信犀角可用於驗毒甚或化解飲食之毒，所以犀牛益發罕貴。就製甲而言，犀革風乾
最膾炙人口的早期犀牛文物包括：1) 山東壽張縣梁山1843年出土的商代著名酒器青銅 及適當加工後，即可裁成細長方形，又稱甲片，連綴而成「板甲」，又稱「鱗甲」。無疑，
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