Depicting an elderly groomsman, the figure stands on a small rectangular base with his hands raised in an active pose, trying to rein in a horse or camel. He is dressed in an amber-glazed tunic falling to the knees, a green and amber jacket with epaulettes and long, tight sleeves, held at the waist by a wide belt. The head is left unglazed, the pottery body incised to reveal the distinctive facial features of the foreign groom, including the eyebrows, deep sunken eyes, a wide mouth and a beard.
A ‘sancai’ glazed pottery figure of a bearded groom (Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), late 7th century)
Description
Dimensions: 58.4cm high
Provenance:
Collection of Ezechiel Schloss
Gisèle Croës Oriental Art, Brussels, 9 May 1985 (invoice)
A private Belgian collection
Exhibited:
Biennale des Antiquaires, Paris, 1984
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd thermoluminescence test no. 366j34 is consistent with the dating of this piece.
Depicting an elderly groomsman, the figure stands on a small rectangular base with his hands raised in an active pose, trying to rein in a horse or camel. He is dressed in an amber-glazed tunic falling to the knees, a green and amber jacket with epaulettes and long, tight sleeves, held at the waist by a wide belt. The head is left unglazed, the pottery body incised to reveal the distinctive facial features of the foreign groom, including the eyebrows, deep sunken eyes, a wide mouth and a beard.
The standing pottery figure depicts a foreign man, probably a camel driver accompanying a caravan. Part of a group of foreign grooms, they are immortalised in a pose typical for camel drivers, with one arm raised, muscles tensed, with a rope that would have passed from the raised hand to the lowered (left) hand.
Compare a slightly larger figure with a similar pose, exhibited by Eskenazi Ltd., London, Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Ceramics, Eskenazi Ltd, New York, 1999, cat. no. 15. A similar, albeit more static figure of a groom was sold at Bonhams London, 12 May 2022, lot 46. A related sancai-glazed figure of a groom dated to the Tang dynasty is illustrated in Liu Liang-yu, ‘A Survey of Chinese Ceramics: Early Wares: Prehistoric to Tenth Century’, Taipei, 1991, p.251.
