J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Silver and Gold in Ancient China
March 16 – April 14, 2012
19.
A CLAM SHELL BOX AND CHASED SILVER COVER
Tang Dynasty, A.D. 8th-9th Century
the shell-shaped silver cover with domed surface finely decorated with a fenghuang bird with fan-shaped crest and long luxurious tail feathers shown walking with wings displayed, surrounded by exotic blooms and lush foliage borne on long curling stems, the decoration all freely incised in outline and with fine stippling and linear details, reserved on a dense ring-punched ground, and enclosed within a narrow plain border around the rim and downturned narrow sides which are angled over the edge of the natural clam shell base, with a small silver ring at one side of the cover linked by a silver chain to a similar ring on a peg drilled through and attached to the shell.
Width 4 inches (10.2 cm)
Compare the small Tang dynasty clam shell-form silver box and cover in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, illustrated by Trubner in the catalogue of the special exhibition, The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, Los Angeles, 1957, p. 125, no. 354. The same silver box and cover is illustrated again in the catalogue of the special exhibition which toured Japan in 1989, Masterpieces of Chinese Arts from The Art Institute of Chicago, Osaka, 1989, p. 35, no. 27.
A small parcel-gilt clam shell-form silver box and cover excavated from the tomb of Li Jingyou, dated by epitaph to A.D. 738, is illustrated in the excavation report entitled Yanshi Xingyuan Tang mu (The Tang Tombs in Yanshi Xingyuan), Beijing, 2001, col. pl. 4-3 and pl. 25-3, with a line drawing on p. 131, no. 120-1. Another parcel-gilt clam shell-form silver box and cover excavated from the tomb of Zheng Xun, dated by epitaph to A.D. 778, is illustrated in the same excavation report, op. cit., col. pl. 7-2 and pl. 25-4, with a line drawing on p. 133, no. 122-2.
Two natural clam shell-boxes found in the Tang dynasty tomb of Jinxiangxianzhu near Xi’an, Shaanxi province are illustrated in the excavation report, Tang Jinxiangxianzhu mu (Tang Dynasty Tomb of Jinxiangxianzhu), Beijing, 2002, pl. 130, with description on p. 80, where the author suggests that the shell-boxes probably were used to hold cosmetic powder.
唐 鳳凰紋銀蓋蚌盒 寬 10.2 厘米
