Lot Essay
These eight figures would have been part of a complete set of twelve horary figures
Three-color glazed figures of this type are rare, however, a group of sancai horary figures was discovered in a Tang Dynasty burial at Situmiao Zhen near Yangzhou, Jiangsu, in 1984. The figures have animal heads and human bodies dressed in long robes, like those in the present group, but they are kneeling instead of standing upright. See Kaogu 1985, no. 9, pl. VI. A set of painted pottery horary figures with animal heads and human bodies was excavated from the tomb of the court eunuch Yang Sixu (d. 740) near Xi'an, illustrated in Tang Changan chengjiao Sui Tang mu, Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1965, pl. VII: 4 and 5; and again by Albert et al, The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles, 1987, no. 86
Three-color glazed figures of this type are rare, however, a group of sancai horary figures was discovered in a Tang Dynasty burial at Situmiao Zhen near Yangzhou, Jiangsu, in 1984. The figures have animal heads and human bodies dressed in long robes, like those in the present group, but they are kneeling instead of standing upright. See Kaogu 1985, no. 9, pl. VI. A set of painted pottery horary figures with animal heads and human bodies was excavated from the tomb of the court eunuch Yang Sixu (d. 740) near Xi'an, illustrated in Tang Changan chengjiao Sui Tang mu, Beijing: Wenwu Press, 1965, pl. VII: 4 and 5; and again by Albert et al, The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles, 1987, no. 86