Page 144 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

The style of dress and elaborate hairstyle are
related to the elegant Þ gures found on the
frescoes on the west wall of the antechamber
of the tomb of Princess Yongtai (685-701),
discovered in the Qianling Mausoleum, Shaanxi
province, in 1960 and excavated from 1964.
Similarly slim-framed and dressed, with
minimal makeup, the present Þ gure appears
contemporaneous to the tomb and can be
attributed to the early eighth century, before
fuller-Þ gured women with heavier makeup
became fashionable.
A closely related Þ gure, but with one hand
holding a ß ower at the chest and the other
resting on the knee, inscribed to the base with
black ink, Guang jia zhi nu zi (‘daughter of the
Guang family’), was sold at Christie’s Hong
Kong, 29th November 2017, lot 2916. Compare
similar seated Þ gures also dressed in molded
robes colored in amber and green with ocher
splashes, and modeled with youthful round
cheeks, but lacking the blue glaze and their hair
arranged in a variation of the two buns, such
as one published in C. Hentze, Chinese Tomb
Figures, London, 1929, pl. 63B; one sold in our
London rooms, 14th April 1970, lot 62; and
another o# ered in our London rooms, 12th June
2003, lot 98.
A related Þ gure of a seated lady playing the
cymbals, her long robe decorated with spotted
stripes of dark blue and amber, was sold at
Christie’s London, 12th October 1970, lot 99.
Compare also a standing Þ gure of related
type, but her hair arranged in longer buns and
skirt decorated in stripes of blue and amber
with cream resist dots, o# ered at Christie’s
New York, 19th March 2008, lot 515. A similar
seated Þ gure but green and amber-glazed and
with hair in a tall winged arrangement from the
Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez and
the Collection of A. Alfred Taubman was sold in
these rooms, 16th March 2016, lot 272.