A SET OF TEN FAHUA FIGURES

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A SET OF TEN FAHUA FIGURES
MING DYNASTY

Comprising two large figures, a man wearing a tall black hat and bearing red-painted books, and a woman holding a turquoise dish, her black hair bound with a red band to match the openwork headdress, the remaining eight figures of smaller size also wearing purple-glazed robes over a turquoise underskirt, and red, brimmed hats, three figures with separately modeled hands, all ten figures raised on hexangonal plinths and with separately modeled loose heads, painted in white slip with the facial details in black and red pigments, one hand missing, some minor restoration--15 5/8 to 20 in. (39.7 to 50.8 cm.) high (10)

Lot Essay

Compare the large group of sixty-six figures excavated from a Ming tomb in the vicinity of Beijing and now in the Shanghai Museum. It represented an honor guard procession, including horsemen in armor, mounted attendants and musicians, palanquin bearers, female servants and others. See d'Argence, ed., Treasures from the Shanghai Museum: 6,000 Years of Chinese Art, San Francisco, 1983, no. 115. A Ming tomb dated 1510, discovered at Baimasi, Chengdu, Sichuan province, contained numerous figures placed both around the coffin in the main chamber and in the shrine-like antechamber. A number of these figures, standing on rectangular pedestals, were exhibited in this country. See The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles, 1987, nos. 105a-d; and Wenwu cankao ziliao, 1956, no. 10, pp. 42-49