Lot 95
95
A VERY RARE WOOD ARTICULATED HUMAN FIGURE, the tall rectangular torso hollowed out to provide a compartment beneath a removable chest cover, the arms and legs with hinged joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles, the head hollowed at the back to provide a second covered compartment and sensitively carved with a serene expression with closed eyes and pronounced cheek bones, the black pigmented hair parted at the centre and falling in two plaits behind the ears (plaits chipped, age cracks), 4th-6th Century AD

Details
A VERY RARE WOOD ARTICULATED HUMAN FIGURE, the tall rectangular torso hollowed out to provide a compartment beneath a removable chest cover, the arms and legs with hinged joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles, the head hollowed at the back to provide a second covered compartment and sensitively carved with a serene expression with closed eyes and pronounced cheek bones, the black pigmented hair parted at the centre and falling in two plaits behind the ears (plaits chipped, age cracks), 4th-6th Century AD
168cm. long

Lot Essay

It appears that no other wood figure of this date has been published. However a remarkably similar example, dated by the Oxford Laboratory to the Liao Dynasty (907-1125), has been researched and published by Jacques Barrere, Catalogue, 1991. That figure, measuring 123cm. in length, is identified as belonging to a genre - the theatre puppet for official ceremonies such as marriages and funerals - which began as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). The puppets were made of wood or fired earth. It is also noted that varying figures are found in other East Asian regions, notably Korea and Japan.

Another comparable wood figure was unearthed from a group of Chu (Warring States) and Western Han tombs at Baoshan, Xingmenshi, Hubei Province and is recorded in Wenwu, 1988.5, p. 9.

The result of radiocarbon dating test by accelerator mass spectometry, Oxford University no. OxA-3659, is consistent with the dating of this lot

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