TWO PAINTED POTTERY FIGURES OF FEMALE MUSICIANS

Details

TWO PAINTED POTTERY FIGURES OF FEMALE MUSICIANS
TANG DYNASTY

Each shown seated on a square base, wearing a long shawl over a low-bodiced dress tied in front with a long sash trailing down the front of the striped skirt falling in graceful folds around the body, the hair painted black and pulled up into looped, double topknots, one playing a harp, the other playing a pipa, traces of red, orangy-red and black pigment, some restoration
8¼in. (20.9cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Several of these seated female musicians are published. A pottery figure holding a waisted drum was unearthed in 1976 from the tomb of Niu Jinda in Liquan County, and was included in the exhibition, Treasures of Chang'an, Hong Kong Museum of Art, October 15, 1993-January 2, 1994, Catalogue, no. 78; and a pair with similar coif and dress from the Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, is illustrated by Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, p. 213, figs. 246 and 248. Other comparable pairs are illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 1, London, 1994, p. 113, figs. 185 and 186; and in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1961, p. 238, fig. 180

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766u66 is consistent with the dating of this lot