SONG-YUAN DYNASTY (AD 960-1368)

Details

TWO GOLD HAIRPINS
SONG-YUAN DYNASTY (AD 960-1368)
The head of one hairpin is worked from one side in repoussé as two dragons with twisted bodies rising from the needle-shaped prongs to support a peony blossom. The terminal of the second hairpin is formed by encircling disks that join at the top to form a loop.
5 ½ and 5 5/8 in. (14 and 14.3 cm.) long; weight 18.3 and 17.6 g; leather box

Provenance

Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, nos. CK63 and CK28.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 114.

Literature

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat nos. 63 and 28.
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pls. 55 and 57.

Exhibited

Copenhagen, Dansk Kunstindustrimuseum, Kinas Kunst i Svensk og Dansk eje, 1950, cat. no. 167 (part).
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. nos. 28 and 63.

Lot Essay

The first hairpin is similar to a gold hairpin, also with two tines that are beaten and chased with two dragons confronted below an open peony blossom, illustrated by Julia M. White and Emma C. Bunker in Adornment for Eternity: Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament, Denver Art Museum, 1994, p. 182, pl. 84, where it is dated Song dynasty. Another hairpin was part of a group of seven gold hair ornaments found in a Yuan-dynasty tomb at Zhoujiatian in Huangpi, Hubei province, and illustrated by Yang Boda, 'Ancient Chinese Cultures of Gold Jewellery and Ornamentation', Arts of Asia, Vol. 38, No. 2, March-April 2008, p. 106, pl. 58.

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