A small superb and finely decorated parcel-gilt-silver box and cover, Tang dynasty

Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo, acquired between 1960 and 1969.

Japanese Private Collection.

Sotheby's New York, 19th-20th March 2013, lot 10.

Galerie Christian Deydier, Paris, 2013.

Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 2, Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, pl. 80.

Gold and silver are eternal symbols of wealth and luxury and have been coveted in every period, but perhaps never more so than among the elites of the Tang dynasty. Gold- and silversmiths are recorded to have been active in Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Guangxi provinces, and precious metal shops selling gold and silver vessels were known to operate in the capital, Chang’an (Xi’an in Shaanxi), as well as several other affluent towns and major trading ports such as Yangzhou in Jiangsu. The wide distribution of manufacturing centers of gold and silver wares in the Tang period gave rise to a wide spectrum of styles, including small delicate boxes, such as the present example, made by the finest hands of the most skillful craftsmen of the period.

Very few silver boxes of a comparable quality have appeared at auction. Compare one decorated with mythical beasts and birds among undulating foliate scrolls, formerly in the collection of J.M.A.J. Dawson, sold in these rooms, 19th March 2024, lot 264; another with birds among floral scrolls, from the Carl Kempe Collection, first sold in our London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 42 and later at Christie's New York, 12th September 2019, lot 544; and a third decorated in parcel-gilt with a flower design, sold at Christie's New York, 20th September 2013, lot 1467.