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I have a Chinese statue, looks very old. Any idea about the age and origin?
thank you for your help.

Hello Chandra.

This looks like a sancai "fat lady" of the Tang dynasty. There are a lot of fakes and replica's but (I'm not that familiar with this older ware) I think that there is a possibility that this one could be real.
Could you, please,
- put your finger inside the hole and tell me how it feels?
- then wet your finger, feel in the hole again and tell me how it smells?

Regards,

Arjan

Hello Arjan,

Thank you for your comment.

I really liked your ideas. In fact, instead of trying it on 'fat lady', I also applied the tips to another statue just to compare. The later statue is newer then fat lady.

What i found, was really interesting. The fat lady, was cold with the feeling of air flowing inside out while the newer statue is warmer. On wet hand, the fat lady smelt like a wet stone. The newer statue smelt nothing (just plain).

Please let me know what you think about that? Do you think it was relevant with her age?

Thank you in advance for your prompt reply.


best regards,

Chandra

Hello,

IF REAL, and I'm not convince, this is a Tang Dynasty sancai (3 colors) statue commonly called "fat lady".

Hello Pierre,

Thank you for your comment,but i'm still curious about it's originality.

regards,
chandra

Hello Chandra,

Not a real evidence but just a little help.

New/fake pieces just feel like hard stone (like a rough brick.) Old (burial) pieces often feel soft inside (like silk) and gives a bad, irritating smell when wetted. Finding small (plant)roots is also a good sign.
Wetting such a piece can also be helpfull to find repairs. If OK the water will be immidiately soaked up. If there are repairs (glue)the water (drops) stays on the surface but you must be carefull and not wet coldpainted parts.
Just my thoughts and again I'm not an expert and maybe other, more experienced, members have other and better ideas.

Regards,

Arjan

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