Page 144 - 2019 September 10th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art Jades, Met Museum Irving Collection NYC

64 A RARE GILT-BRONZE ‘TIGER’
ZODIAC FIGURE
Ⓒġġġ 戭 TANG DYNASTY
挷 standing in a scholar’s robe with a human body of tall, slender
慹 proportions, the exposed hands clasped over the belly, the
嗶 long robe open at the chest and tied at the waist with a cord,
䓇 the unadorned fabric falling close to the body for a graceful
倾 silhouette that ß ares at the hem, the head in the form of a tiger’s
䩳 with muscular cheeks, pricked ears, and the large mouth open
⁷ revealing a row of fangs, the interior hollow, wood stand (2)

Height 7 in., 17.8 cm

PROVENANCE
Eastern PaciÞ c Co., Hong Kong, 27th June 1986.
Collection of Florence (1920-2018) and Herbert (1917-2016)
Irving, no. 1819.
The depiction of animals in cyclical calendars began in the Han
dynasty, but the development of zodiac Þ gures with human
bodies and animal heads did not occur until the Tang dynasty.
Numerous painted pottery Þ gures of this subject have been
excavated in Tang dynasty tombs, however, gilt-bronze versions
are extremely rare. The present Þ gure is of the same style, size,
and material as four other gilt-bronze zodiac Þ gures in the Asian
Art Museum of San Francisco, which respectively represent the
hare, ram, dog, and pig, and are published together in René-
Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, ed., Chinese, Korean and Japanese
Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Tokyo and New York,
1974, pl. 118. A sixth Þ gure, possibly from the same group and
bearing an ox head, from the Seligman Collection is published in
S. Howard Hansford, The Seligman Collection of Oriental Art, vol.
1, London, 1957, pl. XLIII (A88).
$ 8,000-12,000
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142 SOTHEBY’S