A PAIR OF PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS

This lot is exempt from Sales Tax.

PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK COLLECTION, SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OF A UNIVERSITY MUSEUM*

A PAIR OF PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS

NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY (386-534)

Details

A PAIR OF PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURES OF EARTH SPIRITS
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY (386-534)
One modelled as a leonine beast with long, flowing mane framing the open mouth, upturned nose and bulging eyes, the other with a humanoid face, its scowling expression created by a down-turned mouth, upturned nose and bulging eyes beneath furrowed brows, each seated on a U-shaped base and with three slender flame-like projections rising from the backbone above the upright tail, traces of white, green, red and black pigment
10 7/8 in. (27.6 cm.) high (2)

Special notice

This lot is exempt from Sales Tax.

Lot Essay

Compare a similar pair of figures illustrated in Kaikodo Journal, New York, Spring 1997, pp. 244-5, no. 34, and a similar humanoid spirit illustrated by C. Lewis, Into the Afterlife: Han and Six Dynasties Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, Vassar College Art Gallery, 1990, pp. 92-3, no. 39.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C105f30 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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