Lot 249. Collection of Alan L. Wurtzel, Washington, DC. A Sichuan painted gray pottery figure of an entertainer, Eastern Han dynasty. Height 57 cm; wood stand (2). Lot sold 76,800 USD (Estimate 20,000 - 30,000 USD) © Sotheby's 2026

Provenance : Priestly and Ferraro, London, 1998

Note: Seated with legs apart and animated by an open-mouthed expression, the figure holds a drum against the body and raises one hand in a gesture suggestive of rhythmic performance, combining speech, song, and percussion. The exaggerated facial features, stocky proportions, and lively pose reflect the deliberately humorous and expressive style favored in Sichuan funerary art, where potters emphasized movement and character over formal restraint. This lively shuochang or narrative entertainer corresponds to the paiyou, popular comic performers of the Han period, who specialized in satire, parody, and improvisation to amuse their patrons.

The present lot is very similar to the famous figure unearthed at Mt. Tianhui, Chengdu, Sichuan province, now in the National Museum of China, Beijing, illustrated in The Great Treasure of Chinese Fine Arts: Sculpture, vol. 2, Beijing, 1988, pl. 108. With an expression similar to that of the present lot, but seated with his right arm extended, the figure appears to be caught mid-motion as he plays the instrument. Another figure of this type, also in a seated position holding a drum in one hand and reaching out with the other, with a laughing expression and his head covered with a cloth knotted in a very similar fashion, in the Sichuan Provincial Museum, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [The complete works of Chinese ceramics], vol. 3, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 222. A closely related example was sold in these rooms, 31st March 2005, lot 246.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, New York, 25 March 2026