A very rare silver clamshell box
Lot-No. 72
China, Tang-dynasty (618-907). Silver with finely chased decoration. The box in the shape of a clamshell, the two halves connected with a small hinge. The surface finely embellished with a delicate relief of phoenix, birds and foliage on a hammered underground. Partly traces of age. L. 5,5 cm. - Prov.: From a North-German private coll. Acquired around 1930 at the famous Asian Art dealer 'China-Bohlken' in Berlin (by repute) and thence by descent. - Compare a very similar decorated clamshell box in the coll. of the Art Institute Chicago (Inv.-Nr. Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, 1938.1122). For another Tang-period box with the hinge in the same location see a piece in the Freer & Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. (Inv.-Nr. F1930.50).
A very rare silver clamshell box
A very rare silver clamshell box
Lot-No. 72
China, Tang-dynasty (618-907). Silver with finely chased decoration. The box in the shape of a clamshell, the two halves connected with a small hinge. The surface finely embellished with a delicate relief of phoenix, birds and foliage on a hammered underground. Partly traces of age. L. 5,5 cm. - Prov.: From a North-German private coll. Acquired around 1930 at the famous Asian Art dealer 'China-Bohlken' in Berlin (by repute) and thence by descent. - Compare a very similar decorated clamshell box in the coll. of the Art Institute Chicago (Inv.-Nr. Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, 1938.1122). For another Tang-period box with the hinge in the same location see a piece in the Freer & Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. (Inv.-Nr. F1930.50).