China, Southern Song dynasty,
11 - 12th century AD

Overall height: 5 inches, 12.7 cm
Diameter of stand: 7 inches, 17.8 cm

A silver set, comprising a bowl and cover on a stand. The bowl has shallow rounded sides, which are supported on a flared foot and divided into six deep lobes. The interior of the bowl has a central roundel, worked in repoussé with a winged dragon-like creature in flight, pursuing a flaming pearl. Just below the rim on the inside is a narrow engraved band of flowers on a ring-punched ground. The snugly fitting domed cover also has six lobes and a flat everted rim, which is decorated in repoussé with a continuous meander of lotus flowers and leaves.

The top of the cover has a double band of repoussé lotus leaves and a stalk-like finial. The stand has a wide, dish-like flange, which is divided into six lobes and decorated in repoussé with a continuous peony scroll. It is supported on a tall, flared foot that has an upturned edge and an engraved band of leafy scrolls. To the top of the stand is a stepped circular platform, which accommodates the foot of the cup. It is encircled by a band of repoussé lotus panels and the recessed centre is engraved with a single peony flower on a leafy stem. The set also comprises a silver spoon with shallow, elongated oval bowl on a rounded stem that terminates in a triangular finial, as well as a pair of plain chopsticks of tapering form.

This extremely fine set of bowl and cover with original stand and utensils represents a rare surviving example of Song dynasty silver, a material far less commonly found in this period than ceramic. Forms in Song ceramics often echo those originally found in silver; the close similarity of metal prototype and porcelain copy is remarked upon by Jessica Rawson, who observes with reference to a yingqing cup and saucer in the British Museum, that the thinness of its porcelain body was inspired by the sheet-metal a silversmith would use to produce a metal example.1 Fine quality repoussé metalwork originated in the Tang dynasty (618 – 906 AD), and is only occasionally a feature on Song dynasty metalwork, which is more often unadorned. The various ornamental designs on this set strongly resemble those seen on various items of silver from the hoard of 350 pieces of Song dynasty gold and silver discovered during excavations at Xi Dajie in Pengzhou City in 1993.2 A gold bowl from the hoard bears the reignmark of Shao Xi (1190 – 1194), making it plausible that most of the silver found was made during the late 11th or 12th century. A silver cup and stand, dated to the 10th - 11th century AD, is in the Uldry collection. 3 A six-lobed parcel-gilt silver set of cup stand with matching bowls and dishes is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.4 A spoon of similar form with engraved detail is in the Kempe collection.5

1 Rawson, Jessica ed.: The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London 1992
no. 9, pp. 28-9
2 Chengdushi Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo: Sichuan Pengzhou Songdai Jinyinqi Jiaocang, (The Song Dynasty Gold and Silver Hoard from Pengzhou in Sichuan), Beijing 2003
3 Uldry, Pierre et al: Chinesisches Gold and Silber, die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zürich 1994, no. 269, p. 228
4 Lally, J.J. Early Dynastic China, Works of Art from Shang to Song, New York 1996, cat. no. 25
5 Engel, Erik et al: Kinesiskt Guld och Silver/Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection Ulricehamn, 1999, nos.142 p. 190