A PAIR OF GOOD SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS

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A PAIR OF GOOD SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS
TANG DYNASTY

Each slender beast seated on a pierced rockwork base, both well-modeled with muscular chest and wings rising from their front haunches, one with a glazed snarling leonine face framed by a mane below a pair of curled horns divided by an unglazed central flange, the other with an unglazed ferocious human face flanked by large fan-shaped ears and surmounted by a central conical horn and similar flange, both covered in similarly controlled amber, green and cream glazes, some restoration--30 in. (76.2cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

An earth spirit similar to the example with leonine face is illustrated in the Idemitsu Museum 15th Anniversary Catalogue, 1981, no. 630, and a figure similar to the example with human face, but larger, excavated in Guanlin, Luoyang, is in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, illustrated in Da Sancai, no. 14