A STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A SOLDIER

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Details

A STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A SOLDIER
SUI DYNASTY

Standing in a menacing pose with one hand on his hip, the other raised to hold a spear or halberd, wearing elaborate armor bound with cords and molded with monster masks at the waist, on the knees so that the legs appear to be issuing from the monster's jaws and in the form of epaulets on the shoulders, the helmet also formed as a monster's head which encases the soldier's head and frames his face in its open jaws, covered overall with a yellowish straw glaze with greenish tint, some restoration
23¼in. (59cm.) high

Lot Essay

Compare the two straw-glazed soldiers formerly in the Schloss collection illustrated in Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, Stamford, Connecticut, 1977, vol. II, pls. 79 and 80, the latter exhibited in the Chinesische Keramik Kunstgewerbe Museum, Frankfurt, 1923, Catalogue, pl. 82

Compare, also, the similar figure with bird's head helmet in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, illustrated by Hobson in the Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1925, pl. XXXII, no. 216 and another unglazed figure illustrated by C. Hentze, Chinese Tomb Figures, London, 1928, pl. 104

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 666q35 is consistent with the dating of this lot