Page 201 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

1478

THREE STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURES OF
FEMALE COURT ATTENDANTS
SUI DYNASTY (AD 581-618)

Each slender, standing fgure wears a shawl draped
over the shoulders of her long, sash-tied dress, and
has her hair dressed in a ribbon-bound topknot.
One is shown holding an amphora, while the other
two are shown playing an instrument, one a pipa,
the other cymbals. Each is covered with a yellow-
toned straw glaze.

8º in. (21 cm.) high (3)

$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE

Eskenazi Ltd., London, 7 October, 1983.

These charming fgures exemplify the elegance of Sui
dynasty fgures with their slender bodies and delicate
features and have an unusually well-preserved glaze
of rich, yellow tone. Two similar straw-glazed standing
fgures, one holding a pipa and one cymbals, are
illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition
catalogue The Arts of the T’ang Dynasty, London, 1955,
pl. 33, nos. 38 and 39. Another similar fgure shown
playing the pipa is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol.
9, Tokyo, 1955, pl. 106 (right). Based on their dress and
hair style, these fgures can be identifed as from Kucha
in Central Asia. The same costume and Kuchean hair
style can be seen on a group of nine painted pottery
fgures of standing female musicians illustrated by B.
Smith and Wango Weng in China: A History in Art, New
York, 1979, p. 132 (top), where the authors note that
female musicians from Chinese Turkestan played for the
court, and that “musicians from Kucha in Central Asia
probably exerted the most infuence” at court. See, also,
the three similary attired and coifed painted pottery
fgures of seated female court musicians illustrated by
J. Baker in Appeasing the Spirits: Sui and Tang Dynasty
Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, Hofstra
Museum, Hofstra University, 1993, p. 18, no. 9, where
they are described as wearing Kuchean fashions,
and representing the Kuchean modes of music and
entertainment that were popular during the Sui and early
Tang periods.

隋 黃釉女樂伎俑一組三件

199