RARE CHINESE TANG DYNASTY TERRACOTTA SOGDIAN GROOM - TL

Ca. 618-907 AD. Chinese Tang Dynasty. This lead-glazed earthenware figurine shows a standing male wearing an ochre, red and green glazed tunic tied at the waist, who can be identified as a Sogdian groom. The foreign origins of the subject represented here are implied by his exaggerated facial features. These include an aquiline nose, elongated earlobes, prominent cheekbones, and deep-set eyes surmounted by lashed eyebrows. The Sogdians were an Iranian people whose homeland, Sogdiana, was located at the center of several of those routes, in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. First recorded in the 5th century BC as a province of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, and later conquered by Alexander the Great on his journey east across Asia, Sogdiana reached a peak of wealth and prominence during the 4th into the 8th centuries AD. During this time, Sogdiana was made up of a patchwork of oasis towns and rich agricultural land, uniquely placed between the great empires of the Asian continent. Perhaps more than any other people, the Sogdians capitalized on the opportunities of the Silk Roads, developing a merchant society that made great profit out of the trade between China. For a similar figure, see figure 24 at https://sogdians.si.edu/introduction. This piece has been precisely dated by means of a Thermo Luminescence analysis carried out by Ralf Kotalla, an independent German Laboratory. The samples collected date the piece to the period reflected in its style, whilst also showing no modern trace elements. The TL certificate with its full report will accompany this lot. Size: L:570mm / W:350mm ; 5.7kg. Provenance: East Anglian private collection; formerly acquired in the early 1990s in Hong Kong.