TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

This finely engraved stem cup exemplifies the refinement of Tang-dynasty metalwork. Compare a smaller gilt-bronze stem cup engraved with a different pattern of floral scroll on a ring-punched ground from the collection of Mrs. Roy Hunt illustrated by H. Trubner in The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, Los Angeles, 1957, no. 121. Another smaller gilt-bronze stem cup in the Avery Brundage Collection, engraved with a hunting scene, is illustrated by J. Fontein and Wu Tung, Unearthing China’s Past, Boston, 1973, p. 180, pl. 93.