A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY KNEELING FIGURE OF A COURT LADY

Details

A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY KNEELING FIGURE OF A COURT LADY
HAN DYNASTY

Wearing heavy, layered robes tied with a red sash and arched over her feet in back to show the soles of her shoes, the sleeves painted with red borders and socketed for the insertion of hands, the neck also socketed for attachment of the separate head modeled with small features and decorated with two separate metal hairpins in the form of phoenix pendant from pins inserted above the hairline, traces of red and black pigment and white slip (repaired)
22 3/8in. (56.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

It is rare to find a figure of this type with the metal hair ornaments still attached. Similar figures without hair ornaments are in the Freer Gallery of Art, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 9, Tokyo, 1981, fig. 9; and another illustrated by William Watson, Pre-Tang Ceramics of China, London, 1991, p. 214, no. 122