16th Oct, 2025 11:00
TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism
197
AN ANCIENT AND VERY RARE SILK FRAGMENT WITH CONFRONTING LIONS AND BULLS, SOGDIANA, CIRCA 650 AD
€10,000
€20,000
A buyer’s premium of 30.00% (including VAT) applies to the hammer price of this lot if your bid is successful.
Central Asia. Finely woven with red, green, honey, black, and blue threads with bands of confronting lions and bulls, against a vibrant red ground, each standing imposingly on its quarry, their bodies vibrantly decorated and fur picked out in geometric patterns.
Provenance: A private collection of fine Central Asian silks in the United States, acquired in the 1970s. The private collection of Mr. K., United Kingdom, acquired from the above via the British trade and thence by descent.
Condition: The fragment is in good condition, commensurate with age. Obvious losses, tears, loose threads, and soiling.
Dimensions: Size 50 x 39 cm, Size incl. frame 61 x 46 cm
Neatly mounted and preserved on a silk-covered cardboard. (2)
Sogdiana, an ancient region of Central Asia located around Samarkand and Bukhara, lay at the heart of the Silk Road and served as a vital bridge between China, Persia, and the Mediterranean. The Sogdian people, based in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, are known primarily through their language and as master traders from the sixth to the eighth century, establishing bases in China and beyond.
Sogdian textiles often share compositions and designs—such as confronted animals—with those produced in nearby Iranian centers under Sasanian control, making them difficult to distinguish. However, the finely detailed rendering of the animals’ bodies on this fragment points to the period just after the fall of the Sasanians in 641, when such works were no longer valued in Iran.
This outstanding example of a Central Asian silk fragment evokes the wealth and splendor of Sogdiana in the late Sassanian-early Islamic period. The range of stylistic and iconographic references reflects the extensive trading network of the Sogdians, whose mercantile empire, centered on Samarqand and Bukhara, controlled some of the major commercial arteries of the Silk Road.
By the mid-7th century in Central Asia, paired lions had long symbolized power, kingship, and protection. This imagery featured prominently in luxury textiles, where it formed part of the visual language of trade and diplomacy, projecting the wealth and status of the owner or recipient.
This design appears on a number of Sogdian silk textiles which represent motifs inspired by Sasanian royal iconography in which feared animals and their victims allude to the relationship between the powerful ruler and his enemies. This particular motif carries a strong association with power and potency, and possibly was meant to refer to the wearer himself. Such motifs were extensively used and transmitted as a common vocabulary which served an important function in the context of trade and diplomacy. A silk fragment such as the present one would have represented a highly luxurious product indicating the wealth, status and aspirations of the wearer.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related textile fragment with bulls and lions, dated to the 7th-8th century, 78.1 x 48.3 cm, in the Yale University Art Gallery, accession number 2017.54.18. Compare a closely related silk samite with confronted lions and yaks, dated 7th-8th century, exhibited by Carlo Cristi at Asian Art in London Fall 2011.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s London, 25 April 2012, lot 499
Price: GBP 241,250 or approx. EUR 470,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare and important silk robe, Sogdiana, Central Asia, 7th-8th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related motif and similar vibrant red ground.
Central Asia. Finely woven with red, green, honey, black, and blue threads with bands of confronting lions and bulls, against a vibrant red ground, each standing imposingly on its quarry, their bodies vibrantly decorated and fur picked out in geometric patterns.
Provenance: A private collection of fine Central Asian silks in the United States, acquired in the 1970s. The private collection of Mr. K., United Kingdom, acquired from the above via the British trade and thence by descent.
Condition: The fragment is in good condition, commensurate with age. Obvious losses, tears, loose threads, and soiling.
Dimensions: Size 50 x 39 cm, Size incl. frame 61 x 46 cm
Neatly mounted and preserved on a silk-covered cardboard. (2)
Sogdiana, an ancient region of Central Asia located around Samarkand and Bukhara, lay at the heart of the Silk Road and served as a vital bridge between China, Persia, and the Mediterranean. The Sogdian people, based in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, are known primarily through their language and as master traders from the sixth to the eighth century, establishing bases in China and beyond.
Sogdian textiles often share compositions and designs—such as confronted animals—with those produced in nearby Iranian centers under Sasanian control, making them difficult to distinguish. However, the finely detailed rendering of the animals’ bodies on this fragment points to the period just after the fall of the Sasanians in 641, when such works were no longer valued in Iran.
This outstanding example of a Central Asian silk fragment evokes the wealth and splendor of Sogdiana in the late Sassanian-early Islamic period. The range of stylistic and iconographic references reflects the extensive trading network of the Sogdians, whose mercantile empire, centered on Samarqand and Bukhara, controlled some of the major commercial arteries of the Silk Road.
By the mid-7th century in Central Asia, paired lions had long symbolized power, kingship, and protection. This imagery featured prominently in luxury textiles, where it formed part of the visual language of trade and diplomacy, projecting the wealth and status of the owner or recipient.
This design appears on a number of Sogdian silk textiles which represent motifs inspired by Sasanian royal iconography in which feared animals and their victims allude to the relationship between the powerful ruler and his enemies. This particular motif carries a strong association with power and potency, and possibly was meant to refer to the wearer himself. Such motifs were extensively used and transmitted as a common vocabulary which served an important function in the context of trade and diplomacy. A silk fragment such as the present one would have represented a highly luxurious product indicating the wealth, status and aspirations of the wearer.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related textile fragment with bulls and lions, dated to the 7th-8th century, 78.1 x 48.3 cm, in the Yale University Art Gallery, accession number 2017.54.18. Compare a closely related silk samite with confronted lions and yaks, dated 7th-8th century, exhibited by Carlo Cristi at Asian Art in London Fall 2011.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s London, 25 April 2012, lot 499
Price: GBP 241,250 or approx. EUR 470,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare and important silk robe, Sogdiana, Central Asia, 7th-8th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related motif and similar vibrant red ground.
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Auction: TWO-DAY AUCTION: Fine Asian Art, Buddhism and Hinduism, 16th Oct, 2025
Galerie Zacke is honored to present a major two-day live auction event, featuring 662 works of art from China, India, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
The highlight is our flagship live auction on Day 1 (lots 1-269), showcasing masterpieces of exceptional rarity and provenance. Among them are an absolutely perfect and thus extremely rare gilt and copper-red ‘Three Beasts’ bottle vase, Kangxi period, from the collection of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony; a highly important archaic yellow jade bi disk, on an imperially inscribed zitan stand, from the personal collection of the Qianlong Emperor (Hongli); an extraordinary sandstone figure of Lakshmi-Narayana, Chandela period, 10th–12th century, from the collection of Jeremy Knowles; as well as an exceptional 23k gold ritual helmet, Western Eurasian Steppe, possibly Hellenistic or Scythian, from the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum.
Day 2 (lots 270-662) continues with our general auction, offering seasoned collectors and new bidders alike an opportunity to enhance their collections. Learn more.
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