CHINA, TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Three silver cups of this unusual lobed shape are illustrated by Ryoichi Hayashi in The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, New York/Tokyo, 1975, figs. 77, 78 and 96, only one of which, in the Hakutsuru Art Museum, is dated Tang dynasty, eighth century, which has parcel-gilt decoration on a ring-punched ground and has a lobed foot. The other two are described as Sassanian, fig. 77, dated sixth or seventh century, in the Idemitsu Art Gallery, which has a waisted rectangular foot, and fig. 96, dated sixth century, in the Tenri Museum, Nara, which has an oblong foot. Neither of these has a ring-punched ground, a Tang decorative technique that differentiates the background. Also illustrated, fig. 94, is a gilded-bronze cup dated eighth century in the Shoso-in, which is raised on a lobed foot, and is most likely Tang. The same shape can also be seen in a green glass cup in the Shoso-in, fig. 78. The author infers, p. 90, that this shape is most likely Sassanian in origin