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Collections

Unknown
Offering Bowl for Watermid-20th century

Not on view
Silver footed bowl with wide flaring rim, beaded borders at rim and base, and repoussé medallions with geometric and lotus motifs on the body
Silver vessel, close-up of engraved decoration featuring a central roundel with a shou longevity character, surrounded by a lotus medallion with scrolling cloud and floral motifs, deeply incised against a matte silver ground.
Close-up of a silver vessel with engraved medallion featuring a shou longevity roundel surrounded by lotus petals and scrolling cloud motifs, with a beaded border at top.
Close-up of a silver vessel surface with a repoussé and engraved medallion: a central roundel enclosing a shou longevity character, surrounded by layered lotus petals and scrolling cloud motifs in high relief.
Close-up of a silver vessel surface with a deeply chased medallion: a central Chinese character within a circular cartouche, surrounded by a lobed floral border with scrolling foliate relief work.
Artist or Maker
Unknown
Title
Offering Bowl for Water
Place Made
Tibet
Date Made
mid-20th century
Medium
Silver repoussé
Dimensions
Height: 4 7/8 in. (12.38 cm); Diameter: 7 1/2 in. (19.05 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Julian Sands
Accession Number
M.2011.157.4
Classification
Furnishings
Collecting Area
South and Southeast Asian Art
Curatorial Notes

Offering bowls are a quintessential type of Tibetan ritualistic metalware. They are typically used in a set of seven on Tibetan altars and filled with water and other consecrated substances. Offering bowls for water (ting phor) can be made of silver, brass, bronze, ceramic, and, occasionally, gold. Metal offering bowls were often decorated with designs in repoussé or cloisonné enamel.

This Offering Bowl for Water, and it’s almost identical set-mate M.2011.157.5, are elegant in their formal simplicity and resplendent appearance. Both bowls are adorned on their opposing side walls with four lobed cartouches in repoussé that contain a rounded representation of the Chinese character shou (longevity). Each character is combined with the auspicious pan-Asian solar motif of a swastika and sauvastika (left-facing swastika) in the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions respectively. The stylized symbols are formed by the negative spaces created within discontinuous boundary markings. Surrounding the central medallion are eight upright acanthus leaves that abut or intersect a perimeter of split acanthus leaves. The bowls are supported by a splayed foot embellished around the base with a band of goddess (?) figures and two basal borders of bead moldings. The same border designs are repeated underneath the flared rim of the bowls.