the small shallow bowl divided into eight petal-shaped lobes and resting on a short stem with a wide fluted petal-shaped foot, the sides delicately chased and engraved with ducks and parrots, some in flight, others alternately facing each other or with heads turned back, set in a landscape amidst rockwork and trees, all reserved on a minute ring-punched ground, the stem embellished with a band of lotus petals. WEIGHT 331g.

Note: Stemcups of this elegant flower-shaped form with lobed body and the stem in the form of flaring fluted petals are extremely rare, although a closely related gilded silver six lobed stemcup decorated with a hunting scene in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, Kobe, is illustrated in Sekai bijutsu taizenshu: Toyo hen, vol. 4, Tokyo, 1997, pls. 168-169; another example in the British Museum, London, is published in Jessica Rawson, 'The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906), Occasional Paper, no.40, London, 1982, pl. 1.

Cup. Made of engraved silver. Tang dynasty (618-906). Diameter: 6.8 centimetres; Height: 4.3 centimetres. Purchased from George Eumorfopoulos, 1937, 1937,0416.212 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

See also a stemcup with a similar eight-lobed foot but with a less distinctly lobed body, from the Nelson Gallery, Atkins Museum, Kansas City, included in the China Institute of America exhibition  Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat.no. 74; and another, from the Mayer collection and illustrated in Bo Gyllensvard, Tang Gold and Silver, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 8e, sold at Christie's London, 24/25thJune 1974, lot 156. A further comparable example, from  the collections of David-Weill and Arthur M. Sackler, was sold at Christie's New York, 1st December 1994, lot 65.

It is rare to find Tang silver bowls of this simple yet elegant form decorated with an overall chased design as seen on the present vessel. The design pattern is expertly placed and superbly executed, a testament to the very fine workmanship of the Tang silversmith. Vessels of this exquisite quality and rich decorative motif were made for imperial use at the many banquets held by the Tang court. For further information on the use of silver and gold utensils used at banquets see Han Wei, 'Gold and Silver Vessels of the Tang Period', Orientations, July 1994, pp. 31-35.

Compare also a cup illustrated in Zhongguo jin yin boli falangqi quanji, vol. 2, Shijiazhuang, 2004, pl. 6, in the Shaanxi History Museum; and another included in the exhibition Chinesisches Gold und Silber. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1994, cat. no. 136. 

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