Chinese Tomb Guardian Figures - a Pair

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Rare. Tang dynasty (618-906a.d.) earthenware tomb guardians.
Tang dynasty tomb guardians are earthenware figures of people and animals made in … Read more Rare. Tang dynasty (618-906a.d.) earthenware tomb guardians.
Tang dynasty tomb guardians are earthenware figures of people and animals made in the Tang dynasty of China (618–906) as grave goods, (minqi), to be placed in tombs. There was a belief that the figures represented would become available for the service of the deceased in the afterlife. The figures are made of molded earthenware with color generally being added, though often not over the whole figure, or in naturalistic places. Where the coloring was in paint it has often not survived, but in many cases it was in rare sancai (hree-color) ceramic glaze, which has generally lasted well.
These tombs are both molded of earthen. One tomb spirit has a body of a lion with a humanoid face, elephant ears, wings, deer feet, and a long horn high-fire glazed in a runny, fusing sancai (amber, cream and green) glaze. Sancai glaze is among the most difficult rare and revered of ancient Chinese glazes. The second figure is animalian is painted with lead-oxide (red) and iron-oxide (green) pigments. It resembles a chimera, with curled horn, lion face, dragon spine, and deer feet. Both of these figures are 'earth spirits', usually in pairs, placed in tombs of the deceased to guard against evil spirits. The condition of these are in good to very good condition with some pigment loss on the painted animalian figure. The humanoid beast is in remarkable condition. Note that these figures are over 1300 years old!

Dimensions: (sancai) ~13.5" tall, ~4" deep, ~4.5" wide. (painted) ~10.5" tall, ~5" wide, ~6" deep

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