A PAIR OF PAINTED POTTERY FEMALE MUSICIANS, SUI TO EARLY TANG DYNASTYChina, 7th century. Each finely modeled as a lady seated on a short square plinth, one playing an oboe (haidi) and the other a pan flute (paixiao), each with finely painted faces and elaborate double topknots.Provenance: From the collection of Captain Walter Herbert Adgey-Edgar. Sotheby’s London, 13 May 1969, lot 51. A private collection based in the United Kingdom and the United States, acquired from the above, and thence by descent. A copy of the original invoice from Sotheby’s, dated 15 May 1969,signed by Graham D. Llewellyn, the later chief executive, dating the pair to the Tang dynasty, and stating a purchase price for the present lot of GBP 1,700 or approx.EUR 24,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), apanies this lot. Captain Walter Herbert Adgey-Edgar (1887-1977) was a well-known philatelist and writer on China and studied both Japanese and Chinese Stamps. In 1947, he self-published a book entitled ‘A Catalogue of Imperial Japanese Overprints and Issues in Occupied British Territories’. He also wrote for stamp journals using the by-line ‘London Chat’. In 1955 he wrote a paper that was widely published by the philatelic press entitled ‘The Postal and Airmail Routes of Manchuria’.Condition: Conditionmensurate with age. Extensive wear, losses, firing flaws, chips, old repairs and fills, and encrustations, all exactly as expected from authentic Tang dynasty excavations.Weight: 832.1 g and 876.9 g (excl. bases)Dimensions: Height 19.7 cm and 20 cmEach figure with a fabric base of rounded square form, dating from around 1900. (4)Literatureparison:These two figures are similar to a group of ten seated female court musicians in the Shoso-in, Japan, illustrated by Ryoichi Hayashi in The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, New York/Tokyo, 1975, p. 96, fig. 103. Three similar painted pottery figures of seated female court musicians illustrated by J. Baker in Appeasing the Spirits: Sui and Tang Dynasty Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, 1993, p. 18, no. 9, are described as wearing Kuchean fashions, and representing the Kuchean modes of music and entertainment that were popular during the Sui and early Tang periods. The same costume and Kuchean hairstyle can also be seen on a group of standing figures illustrated on p. 17, nos. 6 and 7. In discussing a group of nine similarly attired and coiffed standing figures of female musicians illustrated in China: A History in Art, New York, 1979, p. 132 (top), the authors, B. Smith and Wango Weng, note that female musicians from Chinese Turkestan played for the court, and that “musicians from Kucha in Central Asia probably exerted the most influence” at court.Auction resultparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Christie’s New York, 18 March 2016, lot 1479Price: USD 27,500 or approx.E