A FINELY ENGRAVED SMALL SILVER CUP

TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Details

A FINELY ENGRAVED SMALL SILVER CUP
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The sides are finely engraved and chased on the exterior with a formally arranged pattern of conjoined foliate scrolls, all against a ring-punched ground above the low, flaring ring foot. One side is applied with a ring-handle with a projecting thumb piece on top.
1 ¾ in. (4.5 cm.) high; weight 53.3 g

Provenance

Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK90.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 43.

Literature

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 90.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘T’ang Gold and Silver’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 12b, figs 24g, 78i.
Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cui bian, [Tang Gold and Silver in Chinese and overseas collections], Xi’an, 1989, pl. 72.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 92.
Qi Dongfang, Tangdai jin yin qi yan jiu [Research on Tang gold and silver], Beijing, 1999, pl.12.

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-1955, cat. no. 90.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 40 an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, From Silver to Ceramics, the Potter's Debt to Metal Work in the Graeco-Roman, Oriental and Islamic Worlds, 1986, pl. 33 (bottom).

Lot Essay

Tang-dynasty silver cups of this elegant, slightly waisted shape are known both with and without a handle. One of the latter type, decorated with geese in flight amidst plants, is illustrated by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 151, pl. 374. Examples with a handle similar to that on the present cup, include the cup illustrated in Tang, Eskenazi, London, 1987, no. 8, which is decorated with scrolling grapevine and peony scroll on a ring-punched ground, and two others illustrated in Zui to no bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Museum, 1976, nos. 2-28 and 2-30. The handle on the Eskenazi cup is described as being "pinned to the cup through a floral applique." Unlike the decoration on the aforementioned cups, the decoration on the present cup covers the entire surface of the sides rather than being separated by a narrow bow-string band from a narrow band of decoration below the rim.

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