TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

A similar sancai-glazed candlestick in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, University of Durham, and formerly in the Macdonald Collection, is illustrated by W. Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, London, 1984, p. 72, no. 42. A slightly larger sancai-glazed example (29.4 cm. high), but incorporating large areas of blue glaze, is the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 31 - Porcelain of the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Hong Kong, 1996, p. 225, no. 207. A pair of candleholders of this form, but covered with a straw glaze, is illustrated by H. Tseng and R. P. Dart, The Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1964, pl. 62, and a single straw-glazed example from the Buffalo Museum of Science was included in the exhibition, The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles County Museum, 1957, no. 225. These candleholders can be compared to bronze examples, such as the one in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Bull, dated Six Dynasties, sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 6 December 1983, lot 21.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C100x82 is consistent with the dating of this lot.