AN UNUSUAL PAIR OF GLAZED TILEWORKS FIGURES OF FOREIGNERS SEATED ON BUDDHIST LIONS

During the Ming period the main centers for the production for tilework figures were in Shanxi, Hebei and Henan counties in the north and Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong counties in the south. According to J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 537-38, large tilework figures were "made in section molds, hand finished, and glazed in the sancai or fahua palettes of the tile-making industries," and "would have been produced in specially built small kilns." The author goes on to note that "large-scale sculptures, created by artisans rather than by individual artists, were predominantly produced for religious purposes," with most of them placed in temples. The figures of Daoist or Buddhist deities would have been located within the temple, while the Buddhist lions, in their capacity as defender of the Buddhist law and protector of sacred buildings, were most likely placed at the entrance of a temple or shrine or even sometimes at the entrance to a private residence.