NORTHWEST CHINA , 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

Details

AN UNUSUAL AND RARE SILVER ORNAMENT
NORTHWEST CHINA , 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC
The ornament is finely cast as a stylized feline head with pointed ears and almond-shaped eyes above the stylized, coiled and scallop-edged body. A square, openwork, cage-like loop projects from the back of the head.
2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm.) long; weight 23.2 g

Provenance

Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK86.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 30.

Literature

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 86.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 89.

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 86.

Lot Essay

The present ornament, of exceptional quality and made of precious silver, would have been intended for a person of high rank. A bronze example is illustrated by Jessica Rawson and Emma Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, pp. 332-33, no. 213, where it is ascribed to western Inner Mongolia and dated 3rd century BC. Bunker compares the bronze example to the present silver ornament and notes that similar silver ornaments were found in excavations at Xigouban in Jungar Qi, western Inner Mongolia. Their weights were inscribed on their backs in late Warring States Chinese script.

More from Masterpieces of Early Chinese Gold and Silver

View All