Lot Essay
For a related seated woman with a bird on her right hand, but a rather different coiffure and a dress that is covered all over with a wax resist design, see Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1988, p. 47, no. 180. The same figure is also illustrated in Tang Sancai, Heibonsha Series no. 35, Japan, 1977, p. 119, no. 55
A number of variations on this type of figure exist. Usually they are slender young women, seated in the same frontal position. The varying factors include the dress decoration, hairstyle, type of seat (stool or rock) and type of accessory held, which range from mirrors to ruyi scepters. A seated figure with a double topknot similar to the present example, but holding a ruyi scepter, was exhibited in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, Catalogue, no. 18. Another, also with the same topknot, with a shawl draped around her shoulders, and of smaller size, is illustrated by W. P. Yetts in the Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1929, pl. XXVI, no. 292. Refer, also, to Lin Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics: Early Wares, Prehistoric to Tenth Century, Taipei, 1991, pp. 186-187 for a range of seated women figures in different positions
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766j23 is consistent with the dating of this lot
A number of variations on this type of figure exist. Usually they are slender young women, seated in the same frontal position. The varying factors include the dress decoration, hairstyle, type of seat (stool or rock) and type of accessory held, which range from mirrors to ruyi scepters. A seated figure with a double topknot similar to the present example, but holding a ruyi scepter, was exhibited in Selected Masterpieces of Oriental Ceramics, Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1975, Catalogue, no. 18. Another, also with the same topknot, with a shawl draped around her shoulders, and of smaller size, is illustrated by W. P. Yetts in the Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1929, pl. XXVI, no. 292. Refer, also, to Lin Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics: Early Wares, Prehistoric to Tenth Century, Taipei, 1991, pp. 186-187 for a range of seated women figures in different positions
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766j23 is consistent with the dating of this lot