A polychrome and gilt lacquered bronze female attendant figure, Late Ming dynasty. Estimate US$ 4,000 - 6,000 (€3,500 - 5,300). Photo: Bonhams.

Dressed in a veil framing her oval face, a long sash with undercut details falling to the front of her gown and an offering cloth covering her hands as she cradles a large scroll in her left arm while standing on a low rectangular plinth finished with corner feet, the exterior surfaces showing layers of black, red and gilt lacquer. 13 3/4in (35cm) high

Note: A bronze standing figure of the Daoist goddess Bixia yuanju, ascribed to the Southern Song dynasty, appears to be the prototype for the standing pose, as well as the pleasing oval facial type depicted in this lot: see Philip Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes the St. Louis Art Museum and Robert E. Kresko Collections, 2008, cat. no. 1, pp. 22-23 (63.5cm high). See also see the candle stand in the form of a dancer with similar face, dated as sixteenth-first half seventeenth century, discussed by Robert Mowry in China's Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, 1993, cat. no. 54, pp. 214-215 (42.6cm high); and variation on the same dancing female figure in gilt bronze sold in our London rooms, sale 13740, 10 July 2006, lot 261, and dated as late Ming dynasty (41cm high).