A FINE SMALL SILVER STEMCUP TANG DYNASTY, LATE 7TH/EARLY 8TH CENTURY

the rounded bowl rising from a short knopped stem and wide flared foot, the body finely chased and engraved with a meandering scrolling vine bearing palmettes and trefoil-shaped leaves, fruit and tendrils, all within a broad central register bordered by narrow silver bands between similar simplified scroll bands encircling the base and rim, a saw-tooth band encircling the flange at the base of the body, the decoration all reserved on a minutely circle-punched ground

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 102.

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, pl. 102.

Bo Gyllensvärd, 'T'ang Gold and Silver', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 29, 1957, figs. 55a, 75c, 86b, 87f.

Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cuibian [Tang Gold and Silver in Chinese and overseas collections], Xi'an, 1989, pl. 44.

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, pl. 104.

The cup is in very good overall condition with the exception of a part of the raised band which is missing (ca. 5cm) and the band is in one place. A small crack is visible running 2/3 down from the rim of the cup. Some very minor chipping is visible on the rim and there is a small area of malachite corrosion on the base of the body of the cup. The surface shows very minor overall wear and scratching consistent with age.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Engraved silver stemcups of this form are conceived after Sassanian gold and silver prototypes. Bo Gyllensvard in 'Tang Gold and Silver', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pp. 64-65, notes that the form was also copied in India and is depicted in one of the Ajanta cave paintings. Margaret Medley in Metalwork and Chinese Ceramics, London, 1972, p. 5, mentions the adaptation by the Chinese of the Persian stemcup first as a novelty and then as a vessel appropriate to religious purposes in the seventh century. She illustrates ibid., pl. 5, an engraved Tang silver cup together with a Sassanian prototype.

A cup of this type with chased decoration consisting of lotus scrolls against a ring matted background, from the collection of the Hon. Hugh Scott, was included in the China Institute in America exhibition Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 47, together with another cup decorated with a design of birds surrounded by lotus scrolls on a similar ground, from the same collection, cat.no. 64, the latter sold in these rooms, 14^th July 1981, lot 8, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 19^th November 1984, lot 11, from the collection of Dr. Ip Yee.   

Jessica Rawson in 'The Ornament on Chinese silver of the Tang Dynasty', British Museum Occasional Paper, no. 40, pp. 15-16, discusses the vine scroll, a popular ornament in Central Asia, which had already reached China by the fifth century A.D. and enjoyed renewed favour from the beginning of the Tang dynasty. Rawson illustrates a vine scroll inhabited with birds from cave 12 at Yungang, datable to the late fifth century, ibid., pl. 44, together with a Tang silver box in the City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery decorated with vine scrolls, pl. 45, datable to the seventh or eighth century.