TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

An excavation of the tomb of Li Jingyu, dated 738, outside Xingyuan village, Yenshi, Henan, yielded a small gilt-silver clam shell-shaped box with similarly placed hinge, with different foliate and bird decoration on a ring-punched ground, illustrated in Kaogu, 1986:5, pl. VIII, fig. 3 (right). Another small shell-shaped box with side hinge was included in the exhibition, Chinese Art from the Collection of H.M. King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, The British Museum, 21 January - 5 March 1972, p. 102, no. 153. See, also, two small clam-shaped silver boxes included in the exhibition, Ancient Chinese Bronze Vessels, Gilt Bronzes and Early Ceramics, Eskenazi, London, June - July 1973, no. 28, later sold from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, Sotheby's, London, 12 December 1989, lot 35, of slightly larger size, also engraved with feathers at the hinged end, and no. 26, of the same very small size as the present example with side hinge but bird and foliate scroll decoration.