Dipping bowl, raised from a single sheet of silver, decorated with an incised rosette to the underside with central omphalos; rolled and everted rim; inner face with repoussé rosette, each petal with a stylised beast reserved on a pounced field; later applied central rosette with acanthus border, tondo with repoussé wyvern rampant.

PROVENANCE:
Acquired on the UK art market.
Private collection, London.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12978-244536.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Read & Tonnochy, Catalogue of the Silver Plate: mediaeval and later; bequeathed to the British museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, K.C.B., with selected examples from other sources, London, 1928, n.88, for similar ornament and profile.

FOOTNOTES:
The bowl shows very clearly to be the product of a Sogdian workshop. Stylistic analysis suggests its manufacture by a Sogdian craftsman who belonged to a particular school of metalwork. The workmanship of these artefacts spans across Central Asia from Sogdiana to Tibet to China, a reflection of the complex dynamics of extensive commercial and cultural exchange along the vast network of the Silk Routes. Forms and parallels can be found in a wide territory, from the Avar State to Tang China. Due to their decorative motifs of confronting, the distinctive metallurgical techniques and the inscribed indicators of weight, these objects are concrete proof for the particular high esteem of the aesthetics and skills of Sogdian metalwork.