TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

This charming figure is shown in an intimate moment of repose, seated with one leg pendent and the other bent, with one shoe discarded on the ground and gaze focused on the 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, and relief-decorated with florets, a textile motif that was popular during the Tang dynasty. The hourglass-shaped stool on which she is seated is patterned on rattan models from South Asia, further emphasizing the imperial expansion and cosmopolitan nature of the Tang. A figure with both arms raised and seated in a similar pose is published in Zhongguo gu dai tao su yi shu (Chinese Ancient Ceramic Sculpture and Art), Beijing, 1957, no. 67. Another 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.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. 366t37 is consistent with the dating of this lot.