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

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Past Exhibition

Silver and Gold in Ancient China

March 16 – April 14, 2012

41.
A GOLD HAIRPIN (CHAI)

Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279)

with long slender twin tines, the conjoined upper section richly ornamented with leafy sprays and various flowers including lotus, peony, prunus and aster, all in high relief and with chased details, crowned by an oval chrysanthemum flowerhead with ring-punched center and two tiers of radiating petals.

Length 7 inches (17.8 cm)

A very similar gold hairpin discovered in a Song dynasty hoard of gold and silver at Pengzhou city, near Chengdu in Sichuan province in 1993, is illustrated in the excavation report, Sichuan Pengzhou Song dai jinyinqi jiao cang (The Song Dynasty Gold and Silver Hoard from Pengzhou in Sichuan), Beijing, 2003, col. pl. 7-1, and as a line drawing on p. 12, no. 12-5.

A pair of similar gold hairpins unearthed in 1975 from a Song dynasty tomb at Linjiang, Zhangshu city, Jiangxi province, is illustrated 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. 117, no. 211.

A pair of gold hairpins from the Mengdiexuan collection is illustrated by White, Bunker, and Chen in Adornment for Eternity: Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament, Denver, 1994, p. 184, no. 96, where the authors mention similar silver hairpins excavated from a Southern Song tomb in a suburb of Fuzhou, Fujian province, illustrated in Wenwu, 1977, No. 7, p. 10, no. 29. Two gold hairpins of this type are illustrated in Celestial Creations, Art of the Chinese Goldsmith: The Cheng Xun Tang Collection, Vol. I, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 184-185, no. D03, and three smaller gold hairpins in the Muwen Tang Collection are illustrated by Kwan in Chinese Gold Ornaments, Hong Kong, 2003, pp. 396-397, no. 242.

宋    筒花金釵    長 17.8 厘米