A SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A SEATED COURT LADY TANG DYNASTY |

well-modeled seated on a waisted stool decorated with petal lappets, poised with one hand held at the waist, the other resting in the lap, the long gown glazed in alternating swathes of bright green and amber crisply modeled with vertical stripes enclosing scattered trefoil florets, the décolleté bodice beneath a straw-glazed green-splashed shawl covering the shoulders, the unglazed face with delicate features framed by black hair parted in the center and swept up to either side into a double-topknot 

Collection of Pauline Palmer Wood (1917-1984).
Gifted to the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago in 1977 (acc. no. 1977.608).

The head is likely restuck, the face cleaned and smoothed and one of the top knots is likely a later replacement. There are small chips to the base, glaze flakes, crazing, wear overall consistent with age and type.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

A nearly identical figure, seated with the same hair style and blue and amber-glazed dress was exhibited and illustrated in Arts of the Sui and Tang Dynasties Art, Osaka City Museum, 1975, cat. no. 200. Another very similar figure but also blue and amber-glazed was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th November 2017, lot 2916. Related examples of this type include a figure illustrated in Carl Hentze, Chinese Tomb Figures, London, pl. 63b; another in Arts of China: Neolithic Cultures to the Tang Dynasty, Recent Discoveries, Palo Alto, pl. 376, from the excavation at Wang-ji-fecun, Xian outskirts, Shaanxi; and a fragment of a figure of this type is illustrated by R. L. Hobson, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection: Catalogue of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1925-28, vol. 1, pl. XLIV, fig. 293. Compare also a related seated figure of slightly larger size, formerly from the collections of Capt. S.N. Ferris Luboshez, Irene and Earl Morse and Alfred A. Taubman, and sold in these rooms on 18th November 1982, lot 57; 1st June 1988, lot 88; and most recently, 16th March 2016, lot 272. The source of manufacture for these figures has proven difficult to identify. Among figural representations, sancai-glazed sculptures of seated ladies are relatively rare and, to date it appears that there were very few kilns known to produce sancai-glazed figures. The Gongyi (Gongxian) kilns in Henan province in north China, are well known as the producers of China’s finest sancai lead-glazed wares but excavations at the site have revealed few figural remains. A misfired sancai-glazed lady, seated and holding a duck-form vessel, was discovered at the Liquanfang kilnsite in Chang’an, illustrated in Lu Junmao & Zhang Guozhu, Fragmentary Ceramics of Ancient Xi’an, Xi’an, 2003, p. 8, which is of similar form to a sancai figure unearthed from the tomb of Li Du and his wife in Changzhi, Shanxi, dated to AD 710, illustrated in Hsie Mingliang, Zhongguo gudai qianyoutao de shijie [The world of lead-glazed objects from ancient China: from the Warring States to Tang], Taipei, 2014, fig. 5.28.