TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

This very rare figure of a male courtier is shown in an unusual posture of obeisance, with hands clasped and pierced to hold a hu tablet. It is unusually large and beautifully modeled with life-like features set in an intense expression. It is similar to another large painted pottery figure of an official shown in an equally prostrate position and with his head held in a similar manner. This figure from Shaanxi province is illustrated in Wenwu, 1954:10, pl. 55, and is also illustrated by J. Fontein and R. Hempel in the exhibition catalogue China. Korea. Japan, Berlin, 1968, pl. XIX. The figure wears a similar court hat and full robes, painted red, that fan in curves around the arms. As with the present figure, there is a slit in the top of the clasped hands for the insertion of a hu tablet. These tablets were made of ivory and carried by court officials while in the imperial presence, and are thought to have been used as early as the Tang dynasty. An ivory tablet of this kind is illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition catalogue, Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, London, 1984, pp. 142-43, no. 158. See, also, another similar figure, shown in a less prostrate posture, but wearing a similar court hat and robes, sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 1999, lot 251.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C199p47 is consistent with the dating of this lot.