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Lot Essay
The motif of a lamp supported by a figure appeared first during the Warring States period and continued into the Han dynasty. Several bronze figural lamps dating from the Warring States and Han period have been recorded, and include the example depicting a "Mongolian youth", dated Eastern Zhou period, 4th/3rd century BC, in the Shumei Collection, Miho Museum, illustrated by E.C. Bunker, "A Late Eastern Zhou Lamp Stand: Questions of Gender and Identity", Chinese Bronzes, Selected articles from Orientations 1983-2000, Hong Kong, 2001, pp. 283-5, fig. 1. Also illustrated, fig. 2a, is another very similar bronze figure of a "Mongolian youth" in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which the author states also originally held oil-lamp reservoirs. A bronze lamp featuring a virtually identical figure to that of the present lamp, dated Warring States period, was included in the Gisèle Croës exhibition at the European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht, 13-21 March 1993, pp. 30-1.