A PAIR OF LARGE PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURES OF COURTIERS

TANG DYNASTY

Details

A PAIR OF LARGE PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURES OF COURTIERS
Tang Dynasty
Each standing atop a shaped base with clasped hands hidden within the sleeves of their long, full robes, his belted low on the hips, hers falling in thick vertical folds and incised across the bodice, both with small mouth and nose in a full-cheeked face, his hair gathered up under a cloth cap, hers pulled up and forward into a stiff shape surmounted by a fanned topknot, traces of white, black, pink red and flesh-color pigment
23 and 24in. (60.4 and 63.2cm.) high (2)

Sale room notice

Please note that the correct estimate for this lot is $20,000-30,000.

Lot Essay

A similar figure of a court lady of smaller size (49.1cm.) was included in the exhibition, Tang, Eskenazi, London, 9 June - 3 July 1987, Catalogue, no. 28, where the hairstyle is identified as congji, ('clump' or 'thicket' or 'overgrown') style, and is noted as one of the least common.

The man is similar to two figures excavated in Gaoloucun, Xi'an from the tomb of Wu Shouzhong dated to A.D. 748, one illustrated in Shaanxi Sheng Chutu Tang Yong Xuanji, Beijing, 1958, pl. 103, and the other by M. Tregear, Arts of China: Neolithic Cultures to the T'ang Dynasty, Tokyo, 1968, pl. 370. Compare, also, the figure included in the Eskenazi exhibition, op. cit., no. 39.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test nos. C198c34 and C198c35 are consistent with the dating of this lot.