Raft Cup (1300s–1400s): Art, History and Details

Raft Cup (1300s–1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Zhu Bishan (Chinese, c. 1300–after 1362).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The figure watching the stars is believed to be the messenger Zhang Qian (died 114 BCE). Legend says he lost his way in the Milky Way, where he met the Weaving Maid who gave him a stone from her loom. Zhang, in fact, holds a slab inscribed loom stone. The vessel is dated, inscribed, and has a seal of the silversmith Zhu Bishan, from Zhejiang province, who ran a workshop in the Lake Tai area near Suzhou. Zhu is one of the few Chinese silversmiths known by name, producing silverware so desirable that his name was used like a trademark by his competitors and followers. Made of pure silver, and shaped like a hollow log, the cup was assembled from several silver pieces that were then soldered together.

Object facts

• Title: Raft Cup
• Date: 1300s–1400s
• Creator attribution: Zhu Bishan (Chinese, c. 1300–after 1362)
• Culture: China, Yuan (1271-1368) or early Ming dynasty (1368-1644)
• Type: Silver
• Technique: hammered silver soldered together, with chased decoration
• Dimensions: Overall: 16 cm (6 5/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Yuan Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1977.7

A detail from the museum

The traditional understanding of the silver vessel 's function is that it was supposed to hold wine.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hobson, R. L. “A Silver Cup of the Yüan Dynasty.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 22, no. 117 (December 1912), pp. 153–158.
• 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.
• Spendlove, F. St. George, ed. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, 1935-6. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1935.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.