id: 149146 accession number: 1977.7 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.7 updated: 2025-04-16 18:15:08.632000 Raft Cup, 1300s–1400s. Attributed to Zhu Bishan (Chinese, c. 1300–after 1362). Hammered silver soldered together, with chased decoration; overall: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1977.7 title: Raft Cup title in original language: 銀槎杯 series: series in original language: creation date: 1300s–1400s creation date earliest: 1300 creation date latest: 1499 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: China, Yuan (1271-1368) or early Ming dynasty (1368-1644) technique: hammered silver soldered together, with chased decoration department: Chinese Art collection: China - Yuan Dynasty type: Silver find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Zhu Bishan (Chinese, c. 1300–after 1362) - artist --- measurements: Overall: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed 碧山 and dated 乙酉年 (1345) translation: remark: inscription: The inscription in seal script style (zhuanshu) reads: Raft cup, made in the yiyou year of Zhizheng [1345], Whoso wishes to reach the Milky Way is obstructed by the sky; Once there was a man, restless and valiant, who penetrated into the silver sea. Alas! Why did he not seek for some embroidery from the celestial loom? He only brought back in his arms a slab of stone used to prop up the loom. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1977 opening date: 1977-12-28T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1977. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1977-January 22, 1978). title: Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China opening date: 1988-02-10T05:00:00 Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-April 10, 1988). title: All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection opening date: 1994-11-23T05:00:00 All That Glitters: Great Silver Vessels in Cleveland's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 23, 1994-January 8, 1995). title: Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2009-06-27T04:00:00 Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009). title: Power and Possession: Chinese Calligraphy and Inscribed Objects – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c opening date: 2018-08-13T04:00:00 Power and Possession: Chinese Calligraphy and Inscribed Objects – Chinese Gallery Rotation 240a, 241c. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 13, 2018-February 3, 2019). title: China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta opening date: 2023-09-10T04:00:00 China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10, 2023-January 7, 2024). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Exhibition of Chinese Art. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, UK (1915).', 'opening_date': '1915-01-01T05:00:00Z'} * {'description': 'International Exhibition of Chinese Art. Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts, London, England (November 28, 1935-March 7, 1936).', 'opening_date': '1935-11-28T05:00:00Z'} * {'description': "La Decouverte de l'Asie: Hommage a René Grousset. Musée Cernuschi, Paris, France (1954).", 'opening_date': '1954-01-01T05:00:00Z'} --- PROVENANCE Palace Collection of the Qianlong Emperor, Beijing, China date: footnotes: citations: General Sir Robert Biddulph [1835–1918] date: 1860 or 1861–at least 1915 footnotes: citations: Sir Percival David [1892–1964], London, England, by descent to his wife Lady David date: by 1935–1964 footnotes: citations: Lady Sheila Jane Yorke Hardy David [1914–?], London, England date: 1964–1976? footnotes: citations: (Sotheby's, London, 14 December, 1976, lot 224, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: December 14, 1976 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1977– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Hobson, R. L. “A Silver Cup of the Yüan Dynasty.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 22, no. 117 (December 1912), pp. 153–158. page number: Mentioned: pp. 153–158; Reproduced: plate B url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/859184 Koop, Albert J. and Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of a Collection of Objects of Chinese Art. London: Priv. Print. for the Burlington fine arts club, 1915. page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 55, plate IX url: Spendlove, F. St. George, ed. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935-6. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 1034, pp. 81 and 100 url: La découverte de l'Asie. [Exposition] hommage à René Grousset. Paris: Musée Cernuschi, 1954. page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 447, plate 28 url: Cheng Chen-to. "Chu Pi-shang lung-ch'o chi," (The Dragon Rafts by Chu Pi-shang). Gu gong bo wu yuan yuan kan 故宮博物院院刊 (Beijing 1960), II, pp.165–169. page number: II, pp. 165–169 url: Jenyns, Soame, and William Watson. Chinese Art: The Minor Arts. New York: Universe Books, 1963. page number: Reproduced: no. 35, p. 78 url: Beurdeley, Michel. The Chinese Collector Through the Centuries, from the Han to the 20th Century. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 109, fig. 51 url: Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 37 url: Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, 43, 1971, pl. 3 page number: pl. 3 url: Cao, Zhao, and Percival David. Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun, the Essential Criteria of Antiquities. London: Faber, 1971. page number: Reproduced: fig. 19c url: Sotheby's London. Early Chinese Ceramics; Sung, Ming and Ch'ing Wares; Lacquer; Works of Art. December 14, 1976. Lot 224. page number: url: Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1977." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 1 (1978): 2–42. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 128, p. 33 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159560. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 344 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n364 Little, Stephen. Realm of the Immortals: Daoism in the Arts of China : the Cleveland Museum of Art, February 10-April 10, 1988. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1988. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 19 url: Wilson, J. Keith. "The Fine Art of Drinking: The Chinese Silversmith Zhu Bishan and His Sculptural Cups." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 10 (1994): 380-401. page number: Reproduced: cover, pp. 380–381; Mentioned: pp. 380–401 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161475 Christman, Bruce. “Technical Note on the Raft Cup.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 10 (December 1994): 402–407. page number: url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161476 Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. page number: Reproduced: pp. 74–75 url: Chapman, Jan. The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China [中囯的犀牛角雕刻兿術 = Chung-Kuo Ti Hsi Niu Chiao Tiao Kʻo I Shu]. London: Christie's Books, 1999. page number: Reproduced: p. 263, no. 382 (above) url: Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 104–105 url: "Exhibitions through February 2024.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 63, no. 4 (2023): 16-17. page number: Reproduced: P. 17; Mentioned: P. 16. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.7/1977.7_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.7/1977.7_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1977.7/1977.7_full.tif