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Lot Essay
This figure belongs to a small group of individually-modelled male and female figures holding a goose being fed with funnel in its beak (generally identified as a wine vessel). For a detailed discussion see J. Wirgin's article, A New Look at Wine Carriers among Tang Dynasty Figurines, T.O.C.S,, 1987/88, vol. 52, pp. 11-20. Comparable figures seated on a stool, one of a girl and another of a male figure with foreign features, are in the Rietberg Museum Zürich, exhibited, Treasures from the Rietberg Museum, The Asia Society, New York, Catalogue, 1980, nos. 42 and 43. Compare also a further figure seated on a stool, excavated from the tomb of Li Du in the outskirts of Changzhi city, Shanxi Province. Wenwu, 1989, no. 6, col. pl. 1, and pl. 1. A related figure wearing a similar hat (believed to have been made of felt and introduced into China by foreign merchants, according to an article in Wenwu, 1984, no. 4, pp. 60 and 61), but kneeling on a lotus pedestal, was exhibited in London, Messrs Eskenazi Ltd, 1987, Tang, no. 31.
An example of a figure kneeling on a lotus pedestal is in the T.T. Tsui Collection, Hong Kong, The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 128: and another from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection was sold in our New York Rooms, 1 December 1994, lot 151A.
An example of a figure kneeling on a lotus pedestal is in the T.T. Tsui Collection, Hong Kong, The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 128: and another from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection was sold in our New York Rooms, 1 December 1994, lot 151A.