A Group of Three Large Sichuan Pottery Figures of Entertainers

LATE EASTERN HAN DYNASTY (25-220 AD)

Details

A Group of Three Large Sichuan Pottery Figures of Entertainers
Late Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Including a dancer, a seated singer and a seated musician playing a lute, all wearing layered robes, the dancer with an apron of ribbon-hung panels, all with an assymetrical winged hairdo and small, delicate facial features, with traces of pigment and earth encrustation
22¾in. (57.8cm.), 21½in. (54.6cm.), 25 5/8in. (65cm.) high (3)

Provenance

Christie's New York, 16 September 1999, lot 267.

Literature

S. Little, The Herzman Collection, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 17.

Lot Essay

Another group of three entertainers, also comprising a dancer, singer and lute player, though more simply molded, was exhibited at the Musée Cernushi, Chine Connue & Inconnue: Dix anneés d'acquisitions au Museé Cernuschi, 1982-1992, Paris, 1992. A lute player with similarly flower-adorned hair is in the Shanghai Museum; see Ancient Chinese Sculpture Gallery: The Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 1996, no. 5.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C199q41 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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