J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Silver and Gold in Ancient China
March 16 – April 14, 2012
33.
A GILT-SILVER FLOWER-SHAPED CUP
Liao – Northern Song Dynasty, A.D. 10th – 11th Century
in the form of a large open flowerhead, decorated with lush overlapping petals in varied relief all around the exterior, the rippling surface of the petals finely incised with a dense pattern of striations rising to incised clusters of very thin lines and tiny circles imitating the filaments and anthers below the scalloped lip of the everted mouth, the splayed ring foot decorated in relief with overlapping petal-tips, the exterior of the bowl and foot richly gilded, the designs showing in reverse on the interior and underside.
Diameter 3 1⁄2 inches (9 cm)
Compare the flower-shaped silver cup of very similar design discovered in 1978 in a Liao dynasty hoard of silver vessels at Balinyouqi in Ju’udmeng, Inner Mongolia, illustrated in Wenwu, 1980, No. 5, pl. 5-1, with a line drawing on p. 48, no. 7. The same cup is illustrated again in Zhongguo meishu fenlei quanji, Zhongguo jin yin boli falang qi quanji (Illustrated Classification of Chinese Art, Chinese Gold, Silver, Glass, and Cloisonné), Vol. II, Gold and Silver (II), Shijiazhuang, 2004, p. 190, no. 340, and in Chifeng jinyinqi (Important Archaeological Sites for Excavated Gold- and Silverware in Chifeng Region), Huhehaote, 2006, p. 152, attributed to late in the Liao dynasty.
A scene including a set of three small cups of very similar flower shape in a mural in a Liao dynasty tomb is illustrated in Xuanhua Liao mu bihua (Tomb Murals of Liao Dynasty in Xuanhua), Beijing, 2001, no. 60, described in the catalogue as a scene of preparing a feast.
遼–北宋 鎏金花形銀盞 徑 9 厘米
