Lot 36. A gold sheet fitting, Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE); 8.5 by 3.3cm., 3 3/8 by 1 1/4 in. Weight 1.4g. Estimate 1,000 — 1,500 GBP. Lot sold 2,250 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's 2008

of fragmentary rectangular shape, the thin gold sheet covered with a dense design of finely beaded volute and cloud scrolls from which a figure emerges standing with arms raised and reaching out, all rendered in fine lines edged with minute beading.

Exhibited: Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 14.

Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain: the Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 7, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, pl. 14.

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 10.