A large gilt-bronze kneeling figure, Western Han dynasty | 西漢　鎏金銅跪人

The present figure may be compared with another pair of similar-sized figures, attributed to the early Western Han period, 2nd century BC, published in Masterpieces from Ancient China: Fortieth anniversary exhibition of ten bronzes from Shang to Han to celebrate the millennium, Eskenazi Limited, London, 2000, cat. no. 8. There, they are proposed as supports for a large tray, table, or screen, owing to the strictly practical lug on the reverse.

Cast as a kneeling female attendant, this figure is distinguished by her distinctive hairstyle: centrally parted hair drawn back into a bun at the nape, with her hair cleverly incorporated into a functional lug projecting upward from the coiffure. Her face illuminates with an almost ecstatic smile, while she wears a three-layered belted robe, crossed at the chest, flaring behind toward the feet to reveal the sole, and her hands held before the body and concealed within voluminous sleeves.

Two further figures, probably from the same set as the Eskenazi pair, were recovered from the site of the Guangzhou zoo between 1956 and 1958; see Guangzhou Han mu xia [The Han Tombs at Guangzhou], Beijing, 1981, vol. 2, pl. 36. The Eskenazi pair was possibly separated from the pair now preserved in a Chinese museum before eventually reaching Japan, where they were acquired by Eskenazi.