SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE SILVER PEACH-FORM CUP
SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 12TH-13TH CENTURY
The cup is shaped as a half-peach borne on a leafy branch that forms the handle. The sides are finely engraved with blossoming and fruiting branches that continue under the base, all against a fine ring-matted ground.
3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm.) wide; weight 70.3 g

Provenance

Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK152.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 115.

Literature

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 152.
Bo Gyllensvärd, ‘A Botanical Excursion in the Kempe Collection', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 37, Stockholm, 1965, pl. 16b.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 153.

Exhibited

Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 152.
London, Arts Council Gallery, The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, 1958, cat. no. 283.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 68, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Rufus Chen (陳嘉安) Head of Sale, AVP, Specialist

asianartny@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

A silver cup of peach form and Song-dynasty date, excavated in 1981 at Liyang county, Jiangsu province, is illustrated by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 184, pl. 457, as well as in a sketch of six silver cups of different shapes from the excavation, p. 183, pl. 455 (middle). One of a set of six silver peach-shaped cups recovered from a hoard in Hunan province, dated to the Ming dynasty, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, gongyi meishu bian, vol. 10, Beijing, 1987, p. 91, pl. 175. As with the present cup, the handle and leaves of these cups have been soldered to the body, and the leaves have chased or engraved veins. Peach-shaped cups were also made in other materials during the Song and Ming periods, including in Longquan celadon, such as the cup or washer, illustrated in Longquan qingci yanjiu, Beijing, 1989, pl. 42:4.

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