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A RARE AND IMPORTANT LARGE GILDED SILVER BASIN
- TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

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A RARE AND IMPORTANT LARGE GILDED SILVER BASIN
TANG DYNASTY (618-907)
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    $300,000 - $500,000

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 AND IMPORTANT LARGE GILDED SILVER BASIN
TANG DYNASTY (618-907)
With deep sides rounding up from the flat base, the interior finely chased in the center with twin fish encircled by a narrow border of overlapping petals and a band of leafy, flowering meander, all reserved on a ring-punched ground below six leafy flower sprays in the well, covered overall with mercury gilding
10 7/8 in. (27.7 cm.) diam., box

Lot Condition Report
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Provenance

Collection of P.C. Lu, Hong Kong, prior to 1982.

Lot Notes

Only one other silver-gilt basin of this rare type and with this decoration appears to have been published. Excavated in 1975 at Xi'an, Shaanxi province, it is illustrated in several publications including one by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 162, pls. 393-4. The decoration in the bottom of the excavated example is very similar to the present basin, but the interior walls are not decorated and only the decoration is gilded rather than the entire basin. Also there is a lengthy inscription inscribed on the flat base of the excavated basin. A larger silver basin (34.5 cm.) that appears to be the same shape as the present example, but which appears to be undecorated, is illustrated in Tang dai Jinyin Qi,, Zhenjian Municipal Museum and Shaanxi Provincial Museum, 1985, pl. 228.

The motif of twin fish, or fish swimming in pairs, is symbolic of marital harmony, and fish are also considered auspicious, as the pronunciation of fish is yu, the same word for abundance. During the Tang dynasty the motif is used as decoration in ceramics as well as silver. Two fish quite similar to those of the present basin can be seen chased in the center of a lobed, footed, parcel-gilt bowl illustrated in Tang dai Jinyin Qi, op. cit, pls. 155-6. As with the present basin there are four similarly arranged large detached leaf and flower sprays on the sides above the fish. The use of foliate sprays related to those of the present basin are found similarly arranged on other Tang dynasty silver bowls, such as those illustrated in Tang dai Jinyin Qi, op. cit, pls. 137-44, 170, and 182-6.

A Techinical Examination Report is available upon request.

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