Provenance: Acquired by Walter Hochstadter prior to 1997 and gifted to Alice Chu, Mr. Hochstadter's companion in Australia, and thence by descent to the present owner. 

Note: The decoration of this tazza is quite unusual, i.e., the combination of the figural scene in the center and the band of racing animals on the rim, which is reminiscent of decoration found on Tang mirrors, where animals race amidst grapevine. The scene of the weiqi players can also be found on a silver-gilt jar and cover excavated in 1987 from the crypt of the Famen Temple, Fugeng county, Shaanxi province, illustrated by C. Michaelson, Gilded Dragons: Buried Treasures from China's Golden Ages, British Museum, 1999, pp. 157-8, no. 114. As with the scene on the tazza, there is an onlooker seated behind the table and all are surrounded by a garden setting. The scene is one of four figural scenes decorating the sides of the jar. 

See, also, the plain silver dish dated to the 12th century, which has a similar wide everted rim divided into six rather than five lobes above a similarly lobed and canted well on the interior, illustrated by J. Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, p. 218, fig. 159.  

A Technical Examination Report is available upon request.