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Lot Essay
This delightful figure captures a tender moment of relaxation, depicting a smiling court lady cradling a small bird in her left hand. Her hair is swept up into an elaborate coiffure and she wears an elegant gown with a high waist, low-cut neckline, all covered in a beautiful blue and green glaze. Sancai figures holding a bird are extremely rare. See a Tang dynasty male attendant holding a bird, probably depicting a foreigner or a falconer, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York (1990.291.4). See another sancai-glazed figure seated on a waisted stool and holding a bird was sold in The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, Christie’s New York, 21 September 1995, lot 77 and another one sold at Christie's New York, 24 March 2023, lot 1009.
The important presence of cobalt-blue glaze on this figure would have made it expensive to produce, and comparable examples are rare. A related example, with amber dress and the hands held under blue sleeves, was sold at Christie's Los Angeles, Treasures of the Tang, 4 December, 1998, lot 7, and subsequently at Christie's New York, 26 March 2003, lot 193. Another example of a large Tang figure wearing a cobalt-blue-glazed robe is preserved in the Musée Guimet, Paris, inv. no. MA 4720.
A well-known figure of this type, also with blue-glazed cloak and tiered ribbon, but with her hand lowered to the waist, is illustrated in several publications, including Seiichi Mizuno, Tousansai (Tang sancai), Japan, 1977, vol. 35, fig. 110; in Masterworks of Eastern Ceramics, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan, 1994, Inaugural Exhibition Catalogue, p. 107, no. 20; and by Yuzo Sugimara and W. Watson, Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes and Jades in Japanese Collections, Japan, 1966, no. 40.
The important presence of cobalt-blue glaze on this figure would have made it expensive to produce, and comparable examples are rare. A related example, with amber dress and the hands held under blue sleeves, was sold at Christie's Los Angeles, Treasures of the Tang, 4 December, 1998, lot 7, and subsequently at Christie's New York, 26 March 2003, lot 193. Another example of a large Tang figure wearing a cobalt-blue-glazed robe is preserved in the Musée Guimet, Paris, inv. no. MA 4720.
A well-known figure of this type, also with blue-glazed cloak and tiered ribbon, but with her hand lowered to the waist, is illustrated in several publications, including Seiichi Mizuno, Tousansai (Tang sancai), Japan, 1977, vol. 35, fig. 110; in Masterworks of Eastern Ceramics, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan, 1994, Inaugural Exhibition Catalogue, p. 107, no. 20; and by Yuzo Sugimara and W. Watson, Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes and Jades in Japanese Collections, Japan, 1966, no. 40.