A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER HAIRPINTANG DYNASTY |

of thin silver sheet, the broad rounded top tapering to a double-pronged pin, decorated to one side with a central raised ridge following the shape of the hairpin, finely engraved and gilt with a stylized floral compound formed by formalized leafy foliate flower blossoms beneath a floral-shaped reserve

Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). 

In Chinese culture, hairpins made with a two-pronged pin, such as the present lot, are referred to as chai, while the ones with only a single pin are called zan. The present hairpin is remarkable for its unusual form, and no other examples appear to be recorded. For the more common form of hairpins of this type, see two undecorated gold hairpins with two slender prongs, included in the exhibition Chinesische Gold und Silber. Die Sammling Pierre Uldry, Rietberg Museum, Zurich, 1994, cat. nos. 212 and 213. Archaeological findings suggest chai appeared in China as early as the Eastern Zhou dynasty. See an early prototype, made from an animal bone, excavated from a Spring and Autumn period tomb in Houma, Shanxi province, illustrated as a line drawing in Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, Zhongguo lidai funü zhuangshi [Decorative clothing and accessories of Chinese women throughout history], Hong Kong, 1988, p. 58, fig. 2.33. Starting from the Sui and Tang dynasties, the stylistic repertoire of chai tremendously expanded due to the high demand for elaborate hair styles favored by the elite classes; for the stylistic evolution of chai, see Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming, ibid., p. 71.