Lot 583. A silver flanged cup, Jin-Yuan dynasty, 12th-13th century; 4 in. (10.2 cm.) wide; weight 50 g. Estimate USD 15,000 - USD 25,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019.

The shallow cup is decorated on the interior with a single lotus flower, and has a flat, flange-like handle decorated in repoussé stippling with foliate scroll projecting from the rim on one side.

Provenance: Dr. Johan Carl Kempe (1884-1967) Collection, Sweden, before 1953, no. CK136.
Sotheby's London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork. Early Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008, lot 107.

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, cat. no. 136.
Michael Vickers, Oliver Impey and James Allan, From Silver to Ceramic, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1986, pl. 35. 
Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 138. 

Exhibited: Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, 1954-55, cat. no. 136.

Note: Silver and gold vessels, often made for use at the imperial court, were often the inspiration for ceramic interpretations, such as the white stoneware cup from the Ingram Collection illustrated by Michael Vickers et al., From Silver to Ceramic, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1986, pl. 35, where it is illustrated with the present silver cup. A gold cup of similar shape, dated Song dynasty, also chased in the center of the interior with a flower stem, and with foliate scroll on the flange handle, in the collection of the Hon. Senator Hugh Scott, is illustrated by Dr. Paul Singer, Early Chinese Gold & Silver, China Institute in America, New York, 1971-1972, p. 68, no. 98. See, also, the white stoneware cup of similar shape dated to the Jin dynasty, 12th-13th century, in the Kai-yin Lo Collection, illustrated in Bright as Silver - White as Snow, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 18, where it is suggested that flanged cups of this type would have served as brush washers.

Christie's. Masterpieces of Early Chinese Gold and Silver, New York, 12 September 2019