A rare set of painted red pottery zodiac figures (shi-er shengxiao) Tang Dynasty

each with human figure standing ramrod straight with hands clasped beneath the long sleeves of court robes belted below the waist, falling in crisp folds and fanning out in a circle over the tips of their shoes, the robes in cream, brown and orange-red, the heads well modeled comprising the complete twelve animals of the Zodiac, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, wth traces of black and red pigments

It is rare to find a complete set of twelve zodiac animals. The present set is also unusual for the crispness of its modeling, especially the naturalistic sculpturing of the heads. A group of twelve unearthed at Xi'an, Shaanxi Province in 1955 and currently in the Museum of Chinese History, Beijing, was included in the exhibition China in Venice, Venice, 1986, cat. nos. 56-67 and another complete set excavated in 1950 at Ba Qiao, Shaanxi Province, and currenty in the Shaanxi Beiling Museum was included in the exhibition Gilded Dragons, The British Museum, London, cat. 63, and a third set from the Shaanxi Museum, Xi-an, was included in the exhibition China: 500 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1998, cat. no. 108. Complete sets have been sold in these rooms 3rd December, 1986, lot 91 and 30th May, 1990, lot 72.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of thermoluninecence tests, Oxford Authentication Ltd., nos. C204b1 and C105c17.