TANG-SONG DYNASTY, 9TH-10TH CENTURY

Tang and Song silver vessels decorated around the sides in repoussé with overlapping petals appear to be rare. Two rows of overlapping repoussé lotus petals can be seen on the sides of a pair of parcel-gilt silver bowls, each raised on a lotus leaf-shaped pedestal foot, of Tang-dynasty date, excavated in 1987 from the Famen Monastery Pagoda, Fufeng county, Shaanxi province, and illustrated by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 350, pl. 669. The sides of a silver bowl in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Myron S. Falk, Jr., illustrated by Dr. Paul Singer, Early Chinese Gold & Silver, China House Gallery, New York, 1971-1972, where it is dated Song dynasty, are worked in repoussé with overlapping chrysanthemum petals. Remains of solder on the bottom suggest the Falk bowl once had a stem foot.