TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

The opulence of the Tang court is reflected not only in the use of gold and silver for the manufacture of vessels, but also for the decoration of everyday objects and personal adornment. For the ladies of the court this included rich jewelry such as necklaces, earrings and bracelets, as well as combs and hairpins that adorned their hair styles, which became more elaborate as the dynasty progressed. Later in the Tang period the ends of the hairpins were often made from thin sheet silver with cut-out designs that made them light in weight and, along with the addition of gilding, made the hairpins shimmer and quiver as the woman moved.

The present hairpins are very similar to one dated Tang dynasty, late 8th-9th century, in the collection of the Art Museum, Princeton University, and illustrated by Clarence W. Kelley, Chinese Gold and Silver in American Collections, The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, 1984, p. 39, no. 5. (Fig. 1) Other similar hairpins include one originally in the collection of the Hon. Senator Hugh Scott and now in the collection of Pierre Uldry, illustrated in Chinesishes Gold und Silber, Zurich, 1994, p. 205, no. 219, and the example illustrated by Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, p. 134, pl. 331. A related gilt-silver hairpin in the Royal Ontario Museum is illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth, Toronto, 1992, p. 223, pl. 127 (bottom). All of these hairpins include a pair of confronted mandarin ducks, an appropriate motif for a lady of the court as mandarin ducks symbolize connubial bliss and fidelity. Two further openwork, gilded silver hairpins in the Royal Ontario Museum, also illustrated pl. 127, have similarly feminine motifs - one of knotted cords representing the unbreakable union of marriage, the other of a phoenix, the symbol of the empress who embodied all feminine attributes.