A FINE SMALL PARCEL-GILT SILVER BOWL

of elegant oblong form and with a bracketed quatrefoil outline, the lobed sides rising from a slightly flared short foot, each lobe superbly engraved and parcel-gilt with a confronting pair of ducks separated by an elaborate conjoined spray of flowers crowned by a large flower head, all on a very finely executed ground of ring-matting, the centre of the interior and base gilt and undecorated

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1954-55, cat. no. 95.

Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain. The Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 43, an exhibition touring the United States and shown also at nine other museums.

From Silver to Ceramic, the Potter's Debt to Metal Work in the Graeco-Roman, Oriental and Islamic Worlds, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1986, pl. 31 (bottom)

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, pl. 95.

Bo Gyllensvärd, 'T'ang Gold and Silver', Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, no. 29, 1957, pl. 11b, fig. 68c, fig. 69a.

Han Wei, Hai nei wai Tangdai jin yin qi cuibian [Tang Gold and Silver in Chinese and overseas collections], Xi'an, 1989, pl. 82.

Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 1999, 97.

The overall condition is very good. The interior has an 8mm scratch to the surface that is not a crack. The gilding is in very good condition.
"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."

Bowls of this elegantly pronounced, lobed quatrefoil form shaped after Persian silver and gold drinking vessels, are extremely rare. A stylistically related bowl of similar section is illustrated in Hugh Scott, The Golden Age of Chinese Art. The Lively T'ang Dynasty, Rutland, Vermont, 1967, pl. 77, now in the Pierre Uldry collection and included in the exhibition Chinesisches Gold und Silber, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1994, cat. no. 138. See also a lobed bowl excavated at Taiyi Road in Xi'an, published in Tangdai jinyin qi, Beijing, 1985, pls. 245-246, together with another lobed oblong vessel, pl. 262. 

A plain silver quatre-lobed bowl with indentations similar at the rim  from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Mottahedeh, was included in the China Institute in America exhibition Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 78, together with a bowl of octafoil shape, pl.79, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.