A SILK SAMITE FRAGMENT, PROBABLY SOGDIAN,

7th - 8th century

in weft –faced polychrome compound twill, in natural ivory (darkened), pale red, blue and green, with a repeating design of a roundel laid against a lobed wreath enclosing stylised flower heads, and enclosing a pair of confronting mandarin ducks supported on a split leaf motif

CATALOGUE NOTE

Many silk textile fragments with roundel designs have been found along the Silk Road; they were popular during the Sui to Tang dynasties (c.6^th – 9^th centuries AD) and examples have been found in almost all the archaeological sites from this period. One of the principle centres for silk production was Zandane, near Bokhara in Sogdiana; the Sogdians traded extensively along the Silk Road and examples of their silks have been found in both the Northwestern Caucasus (at the burial site of Moscevaja Balka) and in sites in northwest China, such as Astana.

The lot offered here is most probably of Sogdian manufacture; related examples are illustrated in Professor Zhao Feng’s article Silk Roundels from the Sui to the Tang, Hali, Issue 92, 1997, pp.80-85, see Figs.4&4a and 8, p.82, both of which include representations of Mandarin Ducks and were therefore most probably intended for the Chinese market. For further discussion of this group of silks, please see Hali, ibid.