A sancai-glazed figure of a foreigner holding a 'goose' wine vessel, Tang dynasty | 唐 三彩藍釉抱鵝壺俑

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18th May 1982, lot 54.

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香港蘇富比，1982年5月18日，編號54

This playful vessel belongs to a well-known group of Tang sancai earthenware figures of wine merchants, depicting foreign male or female figures holding either a wineskin bag, or a vessel in the form of a goose or a lion. Fragrant grape wine, as opposed to rice wine, was an expensive commodity imported from Western Asia and popular among the upper echelons of Tang society. While wine became more accessible in the 8th century, after a new variety of grapes began to be grown in Turfan, Gansu province, and in northern Shanxi province, imported wine continued to be sought after.

Two related figures in the Rietberg Museum and the Burrell Collection are illustrated in Jan Chapman's paper; see 'A New Look at 'Wine Carriers' among Tang Dynasty Figurines', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 52, 1987-88, pp. 11-20, pls 1-2. Compare also an example sold in our New York rooms, 2nd November 1979, lot 181, now in the Idemitsu Museum of Art and illustrated in its 15th Anniversary Catalogue, 1981, cat. no. 624; and another female figure from the collection of Anna Ilsley Ball Kneeland, sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 2014, lot 704. See also a further example sold at Christie's New York, 18th September 2015, lot 2299.