Lot 1275. A rare bronze figural lamp, Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220); 8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) high overall. Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Price realised USD 104,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2010.

Cast as a man standing atop a rectangular plinth, dressed in robes tied at the waist and wearing a cap tied under the chin, holding the base of the detachable lamp stem, which rises to the ribbed drip pan with single pricket, both with some mottled malachite and ferrous encrustation.

Provenance: Eskenazi, London, 1995.

Note: The motif of a lamp supported by a figure appeared first during the Warring States period and continued into the Han dynasty. Several bronze figural lamps dating from the Warring States and Han period have been recorded, and include the example depicting a "Mongolian youth", dated Eastern Zhou period, 4th/3rd century BC, in the Shumei Collection, Miho Museum, illustrated by E.C. Bunker, "A Late Eastern Zhou Lamp Stand: Questions of Gender and Identity", Chinese Bronzes, Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 283-5, fig. 1. Also illustrated, fig. 2a, is another very similar bronze figure of a "Mongolian youth" in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which the author states also originally held oil-lamp reservoirs. A bronze lamp featuring a virtually identical figure to that of the present lamp, dated Warring States period, was included in the Gisèle Croës exhibition at the European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, 13-21 March 1993, pp. 30-1.