Page 219 - Christies Fine Chinese Works of Art March 2016 New York

This striking fgure would have been made for the tomb of a member of the ‘Yellow clouds at Goose Gate Canton –
elite classes in the Tang dynasty, probably in the frst half of the 8th century, Where sun sets behind wind and sand;
when such funerary sculpture was at its height. Apart from the head and A thousand horsemen in black and sable furs –
neck of the fgure, the sculpture is covered with lead-fuxed sancai (three- All styled “Boys of the Feather Forest.”
color) glazes. In addition to the three colors of cream, amber and green, Gold clarinets blow through boreal snow,
which give this style of glazing its name, this fgure has liberal areas of cobalt Iron horses neigh by clouded waters;
blue. As the cobalt from which this blue glaze was made had to be imported Under the tents they are drinking the grape –
from the west, its inclusion on this fgure indicates that it would have been And this is the inch-big heart of their lives.’
a particularly expensive object. The head and neck of the fgure were cold- (Translated in Edward H. Schafer’s The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, Los
painted with pigments which were quite fragile, but a signifcant amount of Angeles and London, 1963, p. 108.)
the facial detail has been preserved showing a smiling, rosy-cheeked young Rosemary Scott
woman with well-defned eyebrows. International Academic Director, Asian Art
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 366n11 is consistent with
The young woman sits with one leg pendent and the other bent so that the the dating of this lot.
foot reaches the height of the opposing knee. She is dressed in garments
suggesting Central or Western Asian origin. It may be that she is intended
to have come from Central or Western Asia, but it is also worth remembering
that Central and Western Asian styles of dress were also popular amongst
Han Chinese young ladies at the Tang capital. This is one of a small group
of known sancai fgures who hold a large bird-shaped vessel in their arms.
These fgures were made in both male and female form. This fgure is
particularly rare because of the addition of the luxurious blue glaze which
beautifully compliments the classic combination of amber, cream and green
glazes.

It is very unlikely that these fgures hold a real bird, and comparisons with a
Tang sancai fgure in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum, holding what
is clearly a leather wine sack, illustrated by J. Chapman in ‘A New Look at
‘Wine Carriers’ Among Tang Dynasty Figurines’, Transactions of the Oriental
Ceramic Society, vol. 52, 1987-88, p. 14, fg. 7, suggest that fgures, like the
current example, are holding a wine vessel, probably made of ceramic or
tooled leather, which has been fashioned in the form of a bird. The mouth of
the vessel appears to have a carved cup acting as both stopper and drinking
cup and Chapman has suggested that this was a rhinoceros horn cup, pp.
11-20. While Chapman argues convincingly on the basis of the established
use of rhinoceros horn at that date and the decoration apparent on the cups
shown on the vessels held by some of the sancai fgures, it is also possible
that these cups/stoppers could have been made of bamboo, wood, silver or a
range of other materials.

By the Tang dynasty, the most widely used substance from which to make
wine in China was rice, although an extensive range of other grains, fruit,
etc. were also fermented to make alcohol. Grapes were introduced to China
from the west in Han times, but they remained a minor crop and were
generally eaten as fruit. Grapes and grape wine were well known among the
Romans, the Arabs and the Uighurs of Chinese Turkestan, and grapes in
many forms, as well as grape syrup and grape wine were sent to the Tang
court at Chang’an after the conquest of the latter region in the 7th century.
More signifcantly, a new wine-making grape was introduced into China,
along with the technical knowledge of wine-making. The new grapes were
successfully grown in regions such as Gansu and the Taiyuan area of Shanxi,
and were even planted in the imperial park. Nevertheless, even by the frst
half of the 8th century, grape wine would have been an expensive, and still
slightly exotic drink, which, like Roman wines, was sometimes favored (and
thus colored) with safron.

While other forms of wine vessel are held by these sancai fgures, the
majority appear to represent geese. The reason for this choice is not
immediately obvious, but there is a poem by the famous Tang poet Li Qi (AD
690-751), approximately contemporary with the current fgure, entitled ‘Song
Below the Border’, which includes reference to both wine drinking and a
place known as ‘Goose Gate Canton’:

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