Lot 74. A fine and very rare parcel-gilt silver bowl, Tang dynasty, 8th-9th century, 24.2 cm., 9 1/2 in. Estimate 70,000 — 90,000 GBP. Lot sold 446,100 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

with shallow, petal-lobed sides, the interior chased and gilt to the centre with a roundel of exotic flowers and pomegranate-like fruits set amidst large feathery leaves, the gently flared sides divided into five lobes, each decorated with a different floral sprig composed of large veined leaves and fully opened blossoms, the exterior with the same design on each lobe, a narrow band of gilt overlapping petals chased on the notched, everted rim, all raised on a splayed circular foot ring chased with a band of overlapping petals.

Exhibited: Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 116.

Note: Bowls such as this and its companion piece with cover, lot 64, with their outstandingly fine feathery flower designs, picked out in gilding, are among the finest Tang parcel-gilt silver objects recorded. A small group of similar bowls are preserved in the West, handed down from old collections formed in the 1930s. See also the discussion of the covered bowl in this sale, lot 64

Two similar bowls in the collection of Pierre Uldry were included in the exhibition Chinesisches Gold und Silber, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 1994, cat. nos 147 and 148, the former sold in these rooms, 13th June 1989, lot 59, the latter sold in our New York rooms, 7th December 1983, lot 90, from the Lauritzen collection; another from the collection of Robert C. Bruce and now in the Bristol City Art Gallery, was sold in these rooms 12th May 1953, lot 21; and another lacking its foot, from the British Rail Pension Fund collection, illustrated in Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament. The Lotus and the Dragon, London, 1984, fig.102, was sold twice in these rooms, 12th December 1978, lot 245 and 12th December 1989, lot 36; and one from the collection of Natanael Wessen, was included in the exhibition Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, Eskenazi, London, 1993, cat. no.32.

Sotheby's. London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Early Chinese Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008