An important parcel-gilt silver Sogdian saddle cup, Central Asia, 7th/8th century

With connections to the Hellenistic and Sassanian worlds, a repertoire of Central Asian motifs and ties to China, the present bowl exemplifies the way in which artistic motifs and forms developed through the local trade routes of seventh-eighth century Sogdiana. This bowl is a significant addition to the small known corpus of Sogdian metalwork, most of which today reside in Russian museums.

Ancient Sogdiana, north of the Sasanian Empire and Bactria, was a land of small states with Samarqand as its principal city. As it was traversed by the Silk Road, an important mercantile class emerged, and Susan Lerner notes that "so dominant were merchants of Sogdian origin that the Sogdian language became the lingua franca of the Silk Road" (Juliano & Lerner 2001, p.222). This fine parcel-gilt cup may have either belonged to one of these notable trading families or been produced for export. Its shape, construction, and decoration provide a fascinating insight into the convergence of influences found across the Silk Road in the seventh century, with Sogdiana at its centre, serving as a bridge between its Western (Sassanian) neighbours and the Tang Dynasty in China to the East.

Although Sogdian metalwork has been found along the extensive trade routes of Central Asia and China, most of the pieces attributed to Sogdiana were found in Russia’s ‘Taiga’. Thus, the largest collection of Sogdian metalwork is now in The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. The renowned scholar Boris Marshak used technical execution, design and iconography to categorise Sogdian metalwork production and delineate its influences (see Marshak 1971). Notably, he divided Sogdian metalwork into three main regional schools: Western, Central and Eastern schools.

Whereas the present cup displays multiple influences, it most closely relates to the 'Eastern' school. The loop handle most probably derives from an ancient form used as an accoutrement by horse riders, allowing riders to tie such cups to their belts, a remnant of a nomadic tradition. As one notes from Marshak’s report, this loop handle features on all three schools (see for example a cup with rams from Eastern Iran, attributed to the Western School, now in The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. no.S-20; a cup with vegetation, found in Tomyz, from the Central school, also in The State Hermitage Museum; available here: https://eurasiansilver.com/portfolio/1297/; and a wine cup with elephant heads attributed to the Eastern School, probably made in Uzbekistan, now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., inv. no.F2012.1).

The vertical gadrooned bands are also a characteristic found in all the above mentioned cups as well as in an example attributed to Eastern Central Asia, now in The State Hermitage Museum, inv. no.S-39.

The design within the central medallion of this cup is both complex and delicate. It is fascinating in its connections to various influences seen across a multitude of media along the silk road and which re-surface on Sogdian metalwork. The incised drawings were created on a 'ring-matted' ground, a technique which deviates the most from the traditional Sassanian design and points to an Easterly, Tang connection. This is a notable feature of both Tang silver and the Central and Eastern schools of Sogdian metalwork, as visible in a wine cup from the early Tang dynasty, now in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., inv. no.F1930.51 and the Hermitage Tomyz cup previously mentioned. The petalled border which encloses the design also points Eastwards, possibly deriving from Buddhist iconography.

Marshak notes that "common for the Soghdians and the Turks was the representation of animals with features of the heroic ideal." (Marshak 1971, p.151). The two-winged horses at the centre of this bowl certainly seem to be taking on a heroic ideal. The pairing of facing animals within a medallion are particular to the Sogdian aesthetic and can be seen on the silk robes worn by the Sogdian nobility, see for example the two horses on the sleeve of a Sogdian coat sold in these rooms, 22 April 2015, lot 176.

The vegetal scrolls which emerge like lotuses at the bottom of the bowl are characteristic of the Eastern school of Sogdian metalwork. They appear as funghi with petalled centres, a possible variant of the lotus blossom that derived from Buddhist iconography, also present in the Hermitage Tomyz cup.

The inscription on the underside of this bowl appears to have been pricked punched and then covered by a sheet of gilding to highlight it. We are grateful to Professor Sims-Williams for confirming that this inscription is Sogdian, but undecipherable.