J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

No other Chinese silver ewer of this form with figural decoration has been previously recorded, but a plain ewer of similar tall faceted shape is depicted in a painting on the wall of a tomb dated by epitaph to A.D. 1093, illustrated in Xuanhua Liao mu bihua (Tomb Murals of Liao Dynasty in Xuanhua), Beijing, 2001, no. 1, described in the catalogue as a scene of preparing tea.

An octagonal silver ewer and cover decorated with peony sprays in panels framed by incised borders of overlapping petal motifs very similar to the borders of the panels on the present ewer, and with a similar flame-shaped knop on the cover, discovered in 1978 in a Liao hoard at Balinyouqi in Ju’udmeng, Inner Mongolia is illustrated by Zhu Tianshu in Liao dai jinyinqi (Liao Dynasty Gold and Silver), Beijing, 1998, p. 137, fig. 32, with caption on pp. 94-95.

In the same monograph, op. cit. p. 42, Zhu relates that figural decoration is very rarely seen on silver vessels during the Liao dynasty and repoussé figures in high-relief did not appear until the mid-Liao period.

The Liao regarded themselves as successors to the Tang, and they showed a strong preference for Tang dynasty motifs and vessel shapes in their metalwork. ‘Silk Road’ musicians and dancers are a popular motif in Tang metalwork. Compare, for example, the famous Tang octagonal cups decorated with foreign entertainers discovered in the Hejiacun hoard excavated near Xi’an in 1970 and now in the Shaanxi History Museum, illustrated in Hua wu da Tang chun: Hejiacun yibao jingcui (Selected Treasures from Hejiacun Tang Hoard), Beijing, 2003, pp. 74-85, nos. 4-5. One of the same cups from Hejiacun was exhibited at the British Museum and illustrated in the catalogue by Michaelson, Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages, London, 1999, p. 126, no. 90.