Lot 64. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A large painted pottery figure of a court lady, Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). Height 74 cm. Lot Sold 4,064 EUR (Estimate 800 - 1,200 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Acquired in Germany, prior to 1981.

Lot 66. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A large painted pottery figure of a court lady, Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD). Height 52.5 cm. Lot Sold 3,810 EUR (Estimate 5,000 - 8,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Andrew Kahane Ltd., New York, 7th November 1995

Lot 59. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A large sancai-glazed pottery figure of a Lokapala, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 119 cm. Lot Sold 27,940 EUR (Estimate 15,000 - 25,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Acquired in Germany, prior to 1985.

Note: Lokapala, also known as ‘Guardians of the Directions,’ were frequently placed in temples and elite tombs during the Tang dynasty as symbols of protection for the deceased and religious alike. Brightly washed in sancai glaze and finely modeled with fearsome armour and intricate epaulettes, the present figure is among the finest examples of its type to come to market in recent years and likely once belonged to a particularly influential patron. 

Compare a related widely-published lokapala excavated in Luoyang from the tomb of General Liu Tingxun (d. 728 CE), now preserved in the British Museum, London, illustrated from the Eumorfopoulos Collection in Carl Hentze, Chinese Tomb Figures, London, 1928, pl. 109; a pair unearthed in 1971 from the Tang tomb of Prince Zhanghuai in Qian County, now preserved in the Qianling Museum, in Chen Anli, ed., National Treasure Collection of Rare Cultural Relics of Shaanxi Province. Tang sancai, Xi’an, 1998, pp 230-1; and another figure of similar sculptural quality with related cap and epaulettes but glazed primarily in blue, sold at Christie’s New York, 19th September 2014, lot 724.

Lot 61. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A large sancai-gliazed pottery figure of an official, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 103 cm. Lot Sold 8,890 EUR (Estimate 6,000 - 8,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Acquired in Germany, prior to 1985.

Lot 65. Property from an Important European Private Collection. A pottery figure of a tomb guardian, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 61.5 cm. Lot Sold 3,810 EUR (Estimate 2,000 - 4,000 EUR) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Acquired in Germany, prior to 1981.

Sotheby's. Art d'Asie, 12 June 2025