A rare limestone figure of an attendant, Tang dynasty

Tonying & Co., New York.

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 15th April 1954, lot 338.

Collection of Mrs M. Hasserman.

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 1st-2nd June 1977, lot 376.

J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

'The Collectors: Of Ink, Clay, and Stone. C.C. Wang in His New York City Residence and Studio,' Architectural Digest, New York, July 1983, p. 105.

Annette L. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese art in the C. C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle and London, 1988, pl. 74.

This figure was part of a group of nine stone figures from the collection of Tonying & Co., offered for sale at Parke Bernet Galleries in 1954. In the preface to the sale of these lots, it is stated in the catalogue that they were excavated from an early Tang dynasty Imperial tomb found in the vicinity of Xianfu, (Xi'an), Shaanxi province. All of the figures in this group are raised on square or rectangular plinths. This feature is also found on four smaller stone figures, also from the Xi'an area, excavated from the tomb of Zheng Rentai, dated to 664 A.D., a satellite tomb of Zhaoling, the mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong in Liquan county, illustrated in Wenwu, 1972, p. 42, fig. 15 (3-4).

Four other figures from the Tonying group sold in 1954 have reappeared on the market, including three male figures described as mourners: the first offered in these rooms, 6th January 1977, lot 377; the second figure also entered the collection of C.C. Wang (Fig. 1) and was sold as part of his collection in these rooms, 27th November 1990, lot 46, later acquired by the National Gallery of Asian Art, in Washington D.C., where it currently resides (accession no. S1996.37); the third was sold by Christie's New York, 20th September 2005, lot 140. Perhaps most similar to the present lot was a figure of a female attendant with arms crossed, sold on behalf of a New Jersey Museum at Christie's New York, 25th March 1998, lot 432.

Compare also a related figure of an attendant from the J.T. Tai Foundation, sold in these rooms, 3rd June 1985, lot 4.; and a figure of a seated musician, formerly in the collection of E. Wolf, exhibited in Ancient Chinese Sculpture, Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1978, cat. no. 3.