Silver cup with handle, China, Tang dynasty (618-960). Chased and punched silver. Height: 5.1 cm, Diameter: 6.5 cm. From the Eumorfopoulos collection, purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the Vallentin Bequest, Sir Percival David and the Universities China Committee, M.32-1935 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017.

Silver cup of inverted bell shape with small hollow foot and loop handle with thumb piece, decorated with a chased design of floral scrolls on a ground of finely punched dots.

This small, handled cup was used to drink alcohol; its shape and the chased decoration of floral scrolls both suggest the influence of similar Sasanian silver examples.

Silver objects were not as highly coveted in China as in other ancient civilisations such as the Roman or the Parthian, but they became important luxury items for emperors and high-ranking officials during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-960). By the beginning of the 7th century large quantities of silver pieces with exotic shapes and styles were imported along the Silk Road from Iran and Central Asia to China. Chinese craftsmen often reproduced foreign shapes and acquired new manufacturing techniques from Central Asian silversmiths who had settled in Chinese urban centres beginning in the mid 7th century.