Page 72 - Chiense Silver and Gold, 2012, J.J. Lally, New York

33. A Gilt-Silver Flower -Shaped Cup
Liao – Northern Song Dynasty, A.D. 10th–11th Century

in the form of a large open flowerhead, decorated with lush overlapping petals in varied relief all
around the exterior, the rippling surface of the petals finely incised with a dense pattern of striations
rising to incised clusters of very thin lines and tiny circles imitating the filaments and anthers below
the scalloped lip of the everted mouth, the splayed ring foot decorated in relief with overlapping
petal-tips, the exterior of the bowl and foot richly gilded, the designs showing in reverse on the
interior and underside.
Diameter 3 ⁄2 inches (9 cm)
1
Compare the flower-shaped silver cup of very similar design discovered in 1978 in a Liao dynasty hoard of silver vessels at
Balinyouqi in Ju’udmeng, Inner Mongolia, illustrated in Wenwu, 1980, No. 5, pl. 5-1, with a line drawing on p. 48, no. 7. The
same cup is illustrated again in Zhongguo meishu fenlei quanji, Zhongguo jin yin boli falang qi quanji (Illustrated Classification
of Chinese Art, Chinese Gold, Silver, Glass, and Cloisonné), Vol. II, Gold and Silver (II), Shijiazhuang, 2004, p. 190, no. 340,
and in Chifeng jinyinqi (Important Archaeological Sites for Excavated Gold- and Silverware in Chifeng Region), Huhehaote,
2006, p. 152, attributed to late in the Liao dynasty.
A scene including a set of three small cups of very similar flower shape in a mural in a Liao dynasty tomb is illustrated in
Xuanhua Liao mu bihua (Tomb Murals of Liao Dynasty in Xuanhua), Beijing, 2001, no. 60, described in the catalogue as a
scene of preparing a feast.

遼 — 北宋 鎏金花形銀盞 徑 9 厘米