This elegant lady stands, her hands before her waist with thumbs up and with long sleeves hanging below. Her hair is looped in two coils above her head while the lower part of her long skirt has three waved pennants on each side, the ends of the turned up toes of her shoes resemble ruyi designs. The unglazed pottery has traces of orange and grey pigment with a striped pattern to her skirt.

Up to the late 7th century the court ladies are slender and elegant in beautiful dresses. The fashion then begins to change and by the 8th century the ladies become much plumper and more matronly. The poet Du Fu (712-770) writes about  ‘beauties taking the air (Tang) by the Chang’an (Xi’an) waterfront wearing kingfisher feather headdresses’, while another Tang poet Xue Feng writes ‘court ladies in their quarters adorning their faces at dawn, looking over the Wangxian Pavilion with the hope of seeing the emperor whiling away the monotonous hours listening to the dripping of the waterclock. The rings suspended from door handles turning cold and mute, resting the hairbrush to look at their crowning locks in the mirror, wearing silken gowns and refreshing their perfume.’

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 5

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection in 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 30 June 1968 (£300)

Location: Treasury: Gallery 2