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A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER EWER
- LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)

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A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER EWER
LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $60,000 - $80,000

Sale Information

Sale 2297
Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections
26 March 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza





Lot Description

A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER EWER
LIAO DYNASTY (907-1125)
The globular body chased on two sides with a makara within a circular border and further incised with foliate motifs, two arranged in circular medallions below the spout and handle, all between petal tip borders
7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm.) high, wood box

Lot Condition Report
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Lot Notes

This rare wine ewer would originally have had a cover and would have stood in a warming basin. See, for example, the octagonal silver ewer and warming basin engraved with floral design excavated in 1978 from a hoard found at a Liao dynasty site at Belin Youqi in Ju Ud Meng, Inner Mongolia, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji - Gongyi meishu bian, vol. 10, Beijing, 1987, p. 59, nos. 120-21

A similarly rendered makara can be found chased in the center of a gold cup of Tang date, excavated in 1983 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, and now in the Shaanxi History Museum, illustrated by C. Michaelson, Gilded Dragons, The British Museum, 1999, pp. 98-9, no. 59. A sancai-glazed pottery ewer very similar in shape, proportions, and size to the present ewer, dated second half of the eleventh or early twelfth century, from Songshan District, Chifeng City, is illustrated in Gilded Splendor, Treasures of China's Liao Empire (907-1125), pp. 312-13, no. 91, where it is noted that silver ewers of similar shape have been recovered from tombs, including Tomb 1 at Qujiagou in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia. A Liao parcel-gilt silver ewer and cover of more squat proportions and chased with large lotus petals was sold in these rooms, 30 March 2005, lot 238.

A Technical Examination Report is available upon request.

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