Lot 142
142
LATER BRONZES VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A BRONZE FIGURE OF A FEMALE ATTENDANT

Details
A BRONZE FIGURE OF A FEMALE ATTENDANT
SONG DYNASTY

Shown standing on a pierced rectangular plinth holding a cloth-wrapped square seal in both hands, wearing a wide-sleeved robe decorated with a ruyi motif on the chest and with long scarves falling in graceful folds from the hem to the base, her hair pulled tightly back under a lotus-decorated headdress, traces of gilding and incense patination, some casting faults
24¾in. (63cm.) high

Lot Essay

Attendant figures of this type were made in various materials including painted stucco, such as the female figure holding a wrapped seal illustrated in Zhoungguo meishu quanji; Diaosu; Wu Dai Song (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture; Five Dynasties and Song Sculpture), vol. 5, Beijing, 1988, pps. 86 and 88. Another in stone, unearthed at Jintangzhia, Fangcheng county, Henan province and now in the Henan Provincial Museum, p. 50 was included in the exhibition, Urban Life in the Song, Yuan and Ming, Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1994, Catalogue, p. 50

For another, smaller, bronze example of a boy carrying a gift, from a private collection in Prague, see Lubor Hàjek, Chinese Art, London, p. 20, pl. 39