TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

Cups of this goblet shape were popular during the Tang dynasty, and are found with varying decorations, often a scrolling foliate pattern, and more rarely a scrolling grapevine such as that seen on the present cup. A stem cup with this decoration is illustrated in Sui to no bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Art Museum, 1976, p. 32, no. 2-23. It can also be seen on two bottle-shaped silver vases of Tang date, illustrated by Clarence W. Kelley, Chinese Gold & Silver in American Collections, The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, 1984, no. 49, dated early 8th century, and no. 50, dated late 8th-9th century. On both of these, birds and animals are interspersed amidst the grape vine. A cup of this form decorated with scrolling grape vines was unearthed from the reliquary chamber of the pagoda at the Qingshan Temple in Lindongxian, Shaanxi province. The construction of the temple was begun in AD 736, and in AD 740 the reliquary was placed in the subterranean chamber of the pagoda along with other objects of gold, silver, bronze and ceramic.