page_title: Tang dynasty tomb figures
section_title: Collecting history
hierarchical_section_title: Tang dynasty tomb figures / Collecting history
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: ゾディアックの唐の彫刻陝西歴史博物館。 English: Shiershengxiao(The Chinese zodiac, made up of Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig) Sculptures in Shaanxi History Museum，designed and made in tang dynasty, which dates back to 1200 years ago. 中文: 陕西历史博物馆中的唐代十二生肖雕塑。
context_page_description: Tang dynasty tomb figures are pottery figures of people and animals made in the Tang dynasty of China as grave goods to be placed in tombs. There was a belief that the figures represented would become available for the service of the deceased in the afterlife. The figures are made of moulded earthenware with colour generally being added, though often not over the whole figure, or in naturalistic places. Where the colouring was in paint it has often not survived, but in many cases it was in sancai ceramic glaze, which has generally lasted well.
  The figures, called mingqui in Chinese, were most often of servants, soldiers and attendants such as dancers and musicians, with many no doubt representing courtesans. In burials of people of high rank there may be soldiers and officials as well. The animals are most often horses, but there are surprising numbers of both Bactrian camels and their Central Asian drivers, distinguished by thick beards and hair, and their facial features. The depictions are realistic to a degree unprecedented in Chinese art, and the figures give archaeologists much useful information about life under the Tang.
context_section_description: Tang figures were not of much interest to traditional Chinese connoisseurs of pottery, and are still relatively little collected by Chinese collectors because they are made specifically for use in burials, and so considered unlucky; however they are popular exhibits in Chinese museums.  They became extremely popular with Western collectors from about the 1910s, especially figures of horses, partly because they harmonized well with modern Western art and decor.  By 1963, Gerald Reitlinger could write that "no Mayfair flat is complete without a T'ang camel".  Prices, which peaked at a top level of about £600 a figure in the early 1920s, fell in the 1930s and 40s, but rose sharply in the 1960s, with a record auction price in 1969 of £16,000 for a horse.
  From about the late 1990s it was realized that there were large numbers of fakes on the market, and there was also an upsurge in new discoveries as construction in China boomed, and the market was hit by increased supply coinciding with a falling from fashion. For all these reasons, the figures have not shared in the huge increase in Chinese art prices since the 1990s, which has been driven by Chinese collectors.  The record price for a horse remains £3,740,000, from a sale by the British Rail Pension Fund at Sotheby's in 1989. In 2002 the dealer who had sold this piece to the pension fund in the 1970s said that he thought that in 2002 it would be "lucky" to reach a price of £1 million.
caption: A set of Chinese Zodiac figures
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