165 - A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER INCENSE HOLDER AND COVER

A RARE PARCEL-GILT SILVER INCENSE HOLDER AND COVER China, Tang Dynasty, H 13.5 cm, 264 g. The cylindrical container rests on a flared foot decorated with a gilt makara emerging from breaking waves beneath a delicate scroll band, rising to a prominent collar of inverted carved lotus petals. The body is finely chased and parcel-gilded with a continuous Buddhist scene depicting guardian kings (Tianwang), accompanied by attendants and kneeling figures set against a dense background of scrolling foliage on a ring-punched ground. The flared upper rim is chased with a scrolling tendril border. The stepped, domed lid is surmounted by a lotus-bud finial and decorated with gilt phoenixes in flight amid scrolls and wave borders. Provenance: A copy of an invoice from Tanaka Bijutsu, Tokyo, dated July 14, 1999, is available. Cylindrical, partially gilded silver containers of this form were used in both courtly and monastic settings during the Tang dynasty to store precious incense pellets, powders, or sacred offerings. Compare gilt silver containers of similar form with lotus-bud finials and a wave band around the foot, excavated from the underground palace of Famen Temple (Famen si) in Shaanxi Province, illustrated by Han Wei and Christian Deydier in *Ancient Chinese Gold*, Paris, 2001, pp. 302–311, pls. 634 and 639. See also a rectangular box, excavated from Famen si, decorated with similar guardian figures, illustrated ibid., p. 259, pl. 590. * The full tax is charged on this item marked *; that is, VAT is charged on the total amount and will be refunded to purchasers upon presentation of a validly stamped export declaration.