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Exhibited: Musée Pierre-No?l, De l’Afghanistan à la Chine. Un siècle de recherches archéologiques le long de la route de la soie. 3 October-8 December 2013, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France. On loan from Galerie Christian Deydier.
Scientific Analysis Report: A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Oxford Authentication on 25 August 2026, based on sample no. C126m12, sets the firing all three samples taken between 900 and 1500 years ago, consistent with dating above. A copy of the report accompanies the lot.
Expert’s note
Artifacts such as this piece, though crafted for burial purposes, provide a vivid insight into life during the prosperous Tang dynasty and reflect the far-reaching cultural exchanges along the trade routes of the time. A typical depiction from the early Tang period, it evokes the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the capital Chang’an, then populated by numerous foreigners owing to the flourishing Silk Roads. Merchants and envoys arrived primarily from Samarkand and Bukhara, contributing to the rich diversity of Tang society. A pottery figure of a seated foreigner, seemingly of a similar ethnic type to the present example, is illustrated by M. Medley in T'ang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1979, p. 56, pl. 47. The author notes (p. 54) that it was fashionable in the seventh and eighth centuries to employ foreign grooms, including “Central Asians such as Khorezmians, Sogdians, Uighurs, and Turks,” as well as Iranians and others with Caucasian features. A related green- and amber-glazed figure of a standing groom, described as Caucaso-Iranian, in the Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Schloss Collection, is illustrated by E. Schloss in the exhibition catalogue Foreigners in Ancient Chinese Art, China Institute, New York, 1969, pl. 6.
China, 618-907. Well potted, standing upright, the foreign groom holds both arms bent before his body, his hands clenched. He wears a tall, sharply pointed cap embellished with applied scroll-like ornaments and projecting side flaps. His characterful face is sensitively rendered with an upward gaze, prominent eyes beneath arched brows, a broad nose, pronounced cheekbones, and full lips. The figure is dressed in a close-fitting, long-sleeved tunic fastened down the front and secured at the waist by a knotted sash, above long trousers falling to the firmly planted feet.
Provenance: Galerie Christian Deydier, Paris, France, by 2013. Collection d’un Grand Amateur Fran?ais, acquired from the above, and thence by descent. Christian Deydier is an internationally respected scholar, author, and dealer specializing in early Chinese art, particularly archaic bronzes. He holds a degree in Chinese language and civilization from the University of Paris and pursued advanced studies in Chinese archaeology at Tai Ta University in Taipei, where he focused on jiaguwen, the earliest known form of Chinese writing from the Shang dynasty. At the age of twenty-six, he published his first major scholarly work with the école Fran?aise d’Extreme-Orient, followed in 1980 by Les Bronzes Chinoises, the first comprehensive synthesis devoted to Chinese bronzes. Appointed an expert at the H?tel Drouot, he went on to establish Oriental Bronzes Ltd, first in London in 1987 and subsequently in Paris, a gallery that evolved into today’s Galerie Christian Deydier, internationally recognized for its exceptional selection of archaic Chinese bronzes as well as its exhibitions and presentations shown at major venues and art fairs in Paris, Brussels, Hong Kong, and New York. Through his scholarship, gallery program, and publications, Deydier has made a lasting contribution to the academic study and connoisseurly appreciation of ancient Chinese art.
Condition: Very good condition with expected wear and firing irregularities. Signs of prolonged burial, encrustations, small losses to base and back of the hat, light surface scratches and rubbing to pigments, possibly with minor old repairs (not showing under very strong UV light), all as generally expected from authentic Tang dynasty excavations.
Weight: 5.8 kg
Dimensions: Height 57 cm
With a fitted silk box. (2)
With his elaborate pointed headdress, animated expression, and hands raised as if controlling the reins of an unseen horse, the present groom vividly evokes the Sogdian presence in Tang China. An Iranian-speaking people whose homeland encompassed the prosperous oasis cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, the Sogdians were among the foremost merchants of the Silk Roads. Their far-reaching networks connected China with Central Asia and the Iranian world, carrying precious goods across enormous distances and introducing foreign tastes, customs, and ideas. The present figure lends this history an arresting human presence, his alert gaze and expressive features conveying a remarkable sense of individual character.
Established in northern China for generations before the founding of the Tang dynasty, Sogdian communities became integral to the life of its great cities. Their shops, taverns, and places of worship flourished around the markets of Chang’an and Luoyang, while individuals of Sogdian descent served as interpreters, soldiers, craftsmen, and officials. Their presence was both international and deeply rooted in China itself. Representations of Central Asian attendants consequently reflect the familiarity of foreign faces and dress within Tang society, as well as the fascination they held for its artists and patrons.
The Sogdians’ association with horses gives the subject particular significance. Sogdians and their descendants are documented as horse trainers and grooms in China, expertise that placed them close to an animal central to Tang military power and aristocratic life. Foreign grooms recur in funerary sculpture, embodying the relationship between prized horses and the skilled attendants entrusted with their care. Margaret Medley discusses the seventh- and eighth-century fashion for employing grooms from several Central Asian peoples, including the Sogdians, in T’ang Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1979, p. 54.
Created to accompany the deceased into the afterlife, a groom of this kind belonged to a sculpted retinue through which the comforts and distinctions of earthly life could be perpetuated. His inclusion expressed access to fine horses and the attendants who tended them, carrying the cosmopolitan character of Tang society into the tomb. Here, the elaborate headdress, carefully articulated clothing, and lively modeling give unusual immediacy to that funerary purpose. Absorbed in his duties, the groom preserves in clay a compelling image of the people whose skills and journeys helped connect Tang China with the wider world.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related pottery figure of a Sogdian groom, dated to the Tang dynasty, 63.1 cm high, in the Shanghai Museum. Compare a related pottery figure of a Sogdian groom, dated to the Tang dynasty, 7th century, exhibited in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo. Compare a related sancai glazed pottery figure of a Sogdian groom, dated to the Tang dynasty, 76.2 cm high, in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, accession number 34-219.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 3224
Price: USD 30,000 or approx. EUR 47,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rare painted grey pottery figure of a foreign groom, Tang dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related subject, modeling, and decoration. Note the smaller size (40.5 cm).
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