Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
Lot 8W
A LARGE YELLOW, GREEN, TURQUOISE AND AUBERGINE-GLAZED STANDING OFFICIAL Ming Dynasty
14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$165,600 inc. premium
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Dessa Goddard
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Michael Hughes
Vice President and Head of Department
I-Hsuan Chen
Senior Specialist
A LARGE YELLOW, GREEN, TURQUOISE AND AUBERGINE-GLAZED STANDING OFFICIAL
Ming Dynasty
Wearing green-edged full-length yellow robes that are tied at his waist with a belt and an aubergine-glazed apron, his hands held together at his chest, as he looks slightly to one side, his skin tones straw glazed and wearing a turquoise and black-glazed cap tied in asymmetric folds, lightly accented aubergine glaze for the moustache and beard, his cloud-lappet-molded shoes extending under his robe hem and all supported on a rectangular green-glazed base.
32 1/4in (82cm) high
Wearing green-edged full-length yellow robes that are tied at his waist with a belt and an aubergine-glazed apron, his hands held together at his chest, as he looks slightly to one side, his skin tones straw glazed and wearing a turquoise and black-glazed cap tied in asymmetric folds, lightly accented aubergine glaze for the moustache and beard, his cloud-lappet-molded shoes extending under his robe hem and all supported on a rectangular green-glazed base.
32 1/4in (82cm) high
Footnotes
明 大件三彩文官立像
The closest equivalent large-scale standing glazed Ming figure appears to be an example in the British Museum, that is illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pp. 542-543, fig. 19:4. Of larger size (148cm high), it depicts a woman, an assistant to one of the Judges or Kings of the Buddhist 'Hell', holding a book above her waistline and dressed in voluminous robes of predominately green and aubergine glazes.
Our figure, can also be favorably compared to a known group of very similar large-size seated glazed stoneware figures of officials that have appeared at auction several times over the past years, since first appearing as a group of seven such figures when sold by Sotheby Parke Bernet as part of the Louise C. Morgan collection and offered on site at the Morgan home, Salutation, West Island, Glen Cove, New York, 29 May 1974, lots 76-78 and lots 124-127. Two of these figures, were offered again at Sotheby's New York, 4 June 1986, lots 127 and 128 and yet two more were sold as a pair at Christie's New York, 2 December 1993, lot 276, and another single example was sold in the same rooms, 20 September 2001, lot 322. One other example from the Helliot Collection in Paris was sold at Christie's New York, 25 June 1983, lot 136.
The facial features of the Morgan group bear a striking resemblance to those on our figure, as does the use of predominately green and mustard-yellow glazed robes with aubergine trims and under-robes, though reversed in the case of our standing figure. In all cases the skin tones are also depicted in a straw glaze. The eyebrows, pupils and facial hair are also delicately highlighted with aubergine touches and all are modeled with idiosyncratic bags under the eyes, adding an unusual naturalistic quality. Most of the figures, like ours have small areas of turquoise glaze, that highlight certain features, in our example, the folded silk cloth that forms part of the officials cap. The hands on our figure are clasped together at chest level, in a very similar fashion to those on the seated example sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2001, lot 322 (J. Pierpont Morgan Collection in addition to the Louise Morgan Collection as listed above). The modeling of the applied-decoration belt plaques on our figure is also mirrored in many of the seated figures.
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