Lot 99. A rare gold openwork 'lotus' hairpin, Song dynasty (960-1279); Length 5⅜ in., 13.6 cm. Estimate: 6,000 - 8,000 USD. Lot sold: 6,300 USD. © Sotheby's 2021

the finial cast as a blossoming lotus flower just before full bloom, the three layers of petals overlapping and with the tips of the innermost petals curving toward the center, each petal rendered with an openwork design, the center of the flower hollow, the post wrapped in a sheet of gold foil worked in repoussé with a stippled pattern imitating the texture of a lotus stem, Lucite stand.

From the Collection of Bruce Dayton and Ruth Stricker Dayton.

Provenance: Eskenazi Ltd., London, 20th August 1999.

Exhibited: Chinese and Korean Art from the Collections of Dr. Franco Vannotti, Hans Popper and Others, Eskenazi, London, 1989, cat. no. 62.

Note: For a Song dynasty gold floriform hairpin finial, of similar style though cast solid rather than in openwork, see one excavated in Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province illustrated in Zhenjiang chutu jin yin qi [Gold and Silver wares unearthed in Zhenjiang], Beijing, 2012, pl. 109. See also a Song dynasty gold repoussé headband, worked and patterned similarly to the sheet wrapping the post of the present hairpin, also excavated in Zhenjiang and published in ibid., pl. 122. For Song dynasty gold jewelry produced with openwork floral designs, see a pair of hairpins and a necklace published in Pierre Uldry, Chinesisches Gold Und Silber, Zurich, 1994, pls 289 and 290.