J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Chinese Porcelain and Silver in the Song Dynasty
March 18 - April 8, 2002
11.
A GILDED SILVER BRUSHWASHER
Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279)
the shallow circular bowl with a flat flange handle of lobed crescent shape projecting from the rim, engraved on the handle with foliate scroll motifs symmetrically arranged and freely drawn on a stippled ground, and decorated on the interior in the same style with a single large peony bloom surrounded by varied foliage on curling stems on a stippled background, filling the medallion formed by the flat base, the steeply rounded sides engraved on the exterior with a band of short arcs clustered to form a repeating pattern below the thin moulded lip, the silver covered all over with gilding of pale ocherous yellow tone.
Width over handle 4 1⁄8 inches (10.6 cm)
A silver bowl of very similar form, engraved with a single lotus bloom on the interior, from the Kempe Collection, now in the Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Sweden, is illustrated in the bilingual catalogue entitled Kinesiskt Guld och Silver/Chinese Gold and Silver, Ulricehamn, 1999, p. 186, no. 138. Another bowl of similar form, made of beaten gold, with engraved floral decoration in a similar style, from the collection of The Hon. Hugh Scott, was exhibited at the China Institute, New York in 1971 and illustrated by Singer in the catalogue entitled Early Chinese Gold and Silver, p. 68, no. 98.
