Lot Essay
While this figure of a lion using its teeth to scratch an itch in its leg is of a known type, this particular example is extremely rare because of its blue-splashed glaze. See, however, a smaller blue-glazed example (4 7/8in. or 12.4cm. high) in the Freer Gallery of Art, dated to the first half of the eighth century and illustrated by William Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, no. 253 alongside a seventh or eighth century white-glazed example. The author mentions that a "standard model of this subject was adopted by the lead glazers and at the white-ware kilns". A different view of the same lion is included by Junkichi Mayuyama in Chinese Ceramics in the West, Tokyo, 1960, p. 6, no. 6 and also by John A. Pope in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 9, The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., Tokyo, 1981, fig. 15
Other sancai-glazed examples include the one in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xi'an, excavated in Wangjiawen, Xi'an, illustrated by Qian Hao et al., Out of China's Earth, New York, 1987, p. 165, no. 243. The same piece is also in Li Zhi Yan, The Art of Glazed Pottery, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 169, no. 174 together with the example from the Tokyo National Museum. The latter is included in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1961, no. 120
A variant on this type of figure is the model of a lion scratching itself with its hind legs, also illustrated in Li Zhi Yan, op. cit., p. 169, no. 176. Interestingly, this model, unlike our present example, shares with the Tokyo Museum lion the sharply defined fur along the front legs and the rope-twist tail
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97c82 is consistent with the dating of this lot
Other sancai-glazed examples include the one in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xi'an, excavated in Wangjiawen, Xi'an, illustrated by Qian Hao et al., Out of China's Earth, New York, 1987, p. 165, no. 243. The same piece is also in Li Zhi Yan, The Art of Glazed Pottery, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 169, no. 174 together with the example from the Tokyo National Museum. The latter is included in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1961, no. 120
A variant on this type of figure is the model of a lion scratching itself with its hind legs, also illustrated in Li Zhi Yan, op. cit., p. 169, no. 176. Interestingly, this model, unlike our present example, shares with the Tokyo Museum lion the sharply defined fur along the front legs and the rope-twist tail
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97c82 is consistent with the dating of this lot