CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

outspread wings; their sweeping tails feature engraved
"eyes" and cusped outlines. Four scrolling
stems issue from the central point, two of them held
in the peacocks' beaks and ending in flowers, and
two passing behind their tails. The remaining space
between this circular design and the sides is occupied
by five double-sprays with leaves and flowers.
The legs, with identical animal masks, have outturned
trifoliate feet instead of animal claws; the
same shape, but carved in wood and elegantly
painted, is to be found a century or more earlier,
in an offering tray preserved in the Shoso-in. 6
The festoons, in the form of knotted scarves with
intricate parcel-gilding, have a central four-petaled
flower instead of the embroidered ball used above.
They hang from split pins passing through gilt
floral washers inside and outside the rim of the
tray. Three small rivets fasten each of the legs to the
underside of the tray, carefully positioned so as to
be almost hidden in the foliage. RW
added. The tray has five lobes and a tightly folded
ribbon design inside the rim, the latter almost
identical to a border pattern used at Dunhuang in
the eighth century in Cave 45.* The center is very
effectively incised and gilded (without the use
of repousse) with a pair of peacocks circling with
1 Excavated in 1987 (FD 5:002; FD 5:075); unreported.
See Shaanxi 19883,1-26.
2 Han 1995, 71.
3 A complete example of a five-legged censer and stand
in Yue stoneware (height 66 [26]) was excavated near
Hangzhou in 1980. See Wang 1996, pi. 15.
4 Tokyo 1998!}, 77, no. 40.
5 Zhongguo shiku: Dunhuang Mogaoku, 3: pis. 135 -136.
6 Nara 1998, no. 65.
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