Page 45 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

PROPERTY FROM THE HAROLD AND RUTH NEWMAN
COLLECTION
136
A MASSIVE PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A COURT
DIGNITARY
Tang Dynasty
Standing in a solemn yet gentle expression, the well-modelled
face with finely painted details below a high court headdress, the
official wearing a voluminous crimson robe with wide sleeve-ends in
cream painted with large scrolling foliage motif, secured by a fitted
breastplate similarly decorated with traces of gilding still remaining,
the hands clutched in front leaving a small opening between the
thumbs possibly holding a tablet, now missing, the fan-shaped tip of
the shoes emerging from the hem, all supported by a rock form base.
38 7/8in (98.8cm) high
$10,000 - 15,000

唐 彩繪文官陶俑

Provenance
American Private Collection
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 2005
The Harold and Ruth Newman Collection, Connecticut, 2005-2022

Exhibited
Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection, J. J. Lally &
Co., New York, 28 March - 16 April, 2005

Published
Early Chinese Ceramics: An American Private Collection, J. J. Lally &
Co., New York, 2005, no. 7

出處：
美國私人藏品
紐約藍理捷中國藝術，2005
康州 Harold and Ruth Newman 藏，2005-2022

展出記錄：
《中國古瓷：美國私人藏品》，藍理捷中國藝術，紐約 2005 年 3 月
28 日至 4 月 16 日，展品第七號

出版記錄：
《中國古瓷：美國私人藏品》，藍理捷中國藝術，紐約 2005 年，第
七號

A very similar gilded and painted pottery figure of a court official, also
with hands clasped possibly holding an attribute, is excavated from
the tomb of Li Siben (dated by epitaph to A.D. 706) and illustrated in
the excavation report, The Tang Tombs in Yanshi Xingyuan, Beijing,
2001, pl. 6-5 and in a line drawing on p. 40, pl. 35-1, with further
description on p. 38.

Another similar court dignitary of smaller size in the collection of the
Tenri University, Sankokan Museum, Japan, is illustrated in Sui To no
bijutsu (Art of the Sui and Tang Dynasties), Osaka Municipal Museum,
Tokyo, 1978, no. 158.

Compare also a court dignitary of this type from the Eumorfopoulos
Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
illustrated by John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 10.

136

CHINESE WORKS OF ART | 43