A number of similar figures with varying details in their elaborate robe and coiffure are published. They are usually depicted with their arms bent and hands held at the waist in fists with thumbs raised, or with hands held in fists, one above the other, at the waist and hip, as in the present lot

A figure with a very similar coif, but more elaborate gown with long sleeves and projecting triangular tabs near the hem, as is often seen on figures of this type, is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Fransisco, 1967, Catalogue, p. 55A. Compare, also, a pair of figures with similar hairstyle, though not quite as exaggerated, in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, illustrated by R.L. Hobson in the Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1925, pl. XXVIII, nos. 181 and 182. In his entry for 182, Hobson discusses the toes of the shoes, noting that shoes of this shape appear to have been fashionable with Tang ladies

See, also, the figure sold in these rooms, September 21 and 22, 1995, lot 596

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 866b63 is consistent with the dating of this lot