MIDDLE-LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

The motif of a lamp supported by a figure appeared first during the Warring States period and continued into the Han dynasty. Several bronze figural lamps dating from the Warring States period and the Han dynasty have been published, including the example with an elaborately inlaid bronze figure from Pingshan, Hebei province, dated middle or late Warring States period, 4th century BC, illustrated by Guolong Lai, "Uses of the Human Figure in Early Chinese Art", Chinese Bronzes, Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 326-32, fig. 10, which has a face of similar shape and an elaborate arrangement of the hair, similar to that of the present figure. The face of a kneeling figure, which forms the base of another lamp, of late Warring States date, fig. 9, is also similar, and the hair can be seen to be artfully arranged. Three small bronze figural lamps quite similar to the present example have also been published: one of smaller size (10.7 cm.) in the exhibition catalogue, Chogoku Sengoku Jidai no Bijitsu (The Art of Warring States Period), Osaka Municipal Museum, Osaka, Japan, 1991, p. 81, no. 99; one illustrated in Early Chinese art from tombs and temples, Eskenazi, 8 June - 9 July 1993, no. 7 (20.4 cm.); and another of somewhat larger size (22.2 cm.), sold at Christie's New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1275.