TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Details

A VERY RARE AND FINELY ENGRAVED PARCEL-GILT SILVER JAR AND COVER
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The globular body is engraved with four fully opened lotus blossoms, each enclosed by leafy, scrolling stems, all reserved and highlighted in gilding on a minutely ring-punched ground. The low, splayed foot is decorated with a sawtooth band. The cover is similarly decorated with a six-petaled flower centered by the knob.
2 ½ in. (6.5 cm.) high; weight 136 g

Provenance

C. T. Loo & Co., New York, before 1941.
Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK93.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 63.

Literature

C. T. Loo & Co., Exhibition of Chinese Arts, New York, 1941, no. 182.
Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 93.
Bo Gyllensvärd, 'T'ang Gold and Silver', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, figs. 34a, 85b.
R. Soame Jenyns and William Watson, Chinese Art. The Minor Arts, London, 1963, pl. 21.
D. Lion-Goldschmidt and J.-C. Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art II: Gold, Silver, Later Bronzes, Cloisonné Cantonese Enamel, Lacquer, Furniture, Wood, Switzerland, 1966, p. 46, no. 21 (revised English edition 1980).
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 95.
Qi Dongfang, Tangdai jin yin qi yan jiu [Research on Tang gold and silver], Beijing, 1999, pl. 87.

Exhibited

New York, C. T. Loo & Co. Exhibition of Chinese Arts, 1 November 1941-30 April 1942, no. 182.
Copenhagen, Dansk Kunstindustrimuseum, Kinas Kunst i Svensk og Dansk eje, 1950, cat. no. 192.
Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 93.
New York, Asia House Gallery, Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, 1971, cat. no. 41, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Sale Room Notice

Please note that there is additional literature for this lot: D. Lion-Goldschmidt and J.-C. Moreau-Gobard, Chinese Art II: Gold, Silver, Later Bronzes, Cloisonné Cantonese Enamel, Lacquer, Furniture, Wood, Switzerland, 1966, p. 46, no. 21 (revised English edition 1980).

Lot Essay

No other similar parcel-gilt jar appears to be published, but a plain silver jar and cover of this shape from the Hejiacun hoard is shown in a line drawing illustrated by Qi Dongfang, Tangdai jin yin qi yan jiu (Research on Tang gold and silver), Bejing, 1999, p. 100, fig. 1-280. The pleasing globular shape of these silver jars is more usually found in ceramic examples of Tang date, such as the sancai-glazed pottery jar and cover, the jar raised on a spreading foot, illustrated by Osvald Sirén, Kinas Konst under Tre Artusenden, Stockholm, 1942, p. 188, fig. 209; and another sancai-glazed pottery jar and cover illustrated in the catalogue for the exhibition, Zui to no bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, 1976, p. 8, no. 1:25. Jars of this shape are often referred to as 'apple' jars. Another sancai-glazed pottery jar and cover of this shape, in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bernat, is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1955, pl. 7b, no. 135. This jar is raised on an integral stand, but one can see that it has a circular foot. A Xingyao jar and cover, also in the Kempe Collection, illustrated by Bo Gyllensvärd in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Gold and Silver and Porcelain, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, p. 92, no. 79, has the same shape, a low foot, and is incised on the sides with four large petals.

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