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Lot Essay
This rare gold ornament is in the form of a kalavinka, a winged celestial being that is half woman- half bird. This unusual being can be seen as the central decoration of several gold and silver bowls dated to the Liao dynasty and illustrated in Chinesisches Gold und Silber: Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Zürich, 1994, pp. 215-16, pls. 244-247. Like the present figure, the kalavinkas on the bowls have feathered wings and bodies and the hair is worn in a topknot. Based on its size and construction, it is likely that the present gold ornament is the head or terminal of a gold hairpin. Such a terminal, in the shape of Xiwangmu seated on a phoenix, can be seen on a gold hairpin dated to the Song dynasty illustrated by Julia M. White and Emma C. Bunker, Adornment for Eternity: Status and Rank in Chinese Ornament, Denver Art Museum, 1994, p. 181, pl. 93.
A very similar gold ornament in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, was included in the exhibition, The Art of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957, no. 303, and was also included in the exhibition, Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, New York 1971, no. 31. In Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, p. 89, no. 35, Bo Gyllensvärd notes that a similar pair, in the full round, is in the collection of The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
A very similar gold ornament in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, was included in the exhibition, The Art of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957, no. 303, and was also included in the exhibition, Early Chinese Gold and Silver, China House Gallery, China Institute in America, New York 1971, no. 31. In Chinese Gold and Silver in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1953, p. 89, no. 35, Bo Gyllensvärd notes that a similar pair, in the full round, is in the collection of The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.