A PAIR OF GILT-COPPER PLAQUES TANG DYNASTY

This pair of plaques draws its inspiration from Western Asia, where the lion was an important subject and often appeared on silver dishes made in the Sassanian empire. Until the Tang dynasty, lions were rarely used for decoration as they were not native to China and thus not widely known. Symmetrical confronted pairs of creatures were also drawn from Western Asia where this arrangement of animals, birds and human figures was used as early as the third millennium BC (see Jessica Rawson, 'The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD618-906)', British Museum Occasional Paper, no. 40, London, 1982, p. 5). A silver dish decorated in relief with two similar facing lions holding flower sprays in their mouths, from the Shaanxi History Museum, Shaanxi, is illustrated in Zhongguo qingtong jinyin qi dingji tudian, Hong Kong, 2007, p. 276, pl. 51.

For archaic examples of beaten gold plaques depicting crouching tigers and horned felines, see several examples included in the exhibition Inlaid Bronze and Related Material from Pre-Tang China, Eskenazi, London, 1991, cat. nos 59-63.