I bought this pair of Tang dynasty (618-906 AD) sculptures apart from each other. They both came from the same trustworthy seller who sold them in auction separately, and with a year between them. Both of them were severely damaged, so I could afford to buy them. I restored them myself.

They are made from a reddish-brown earthenware, which became porous. It does absorb water quickly and gives off a distinct old pottery smell. The figures are cold painted, and I think they have quite an amount of original paint on them. A lot of these cold painted figures are wholly, or partially repainted. In these for example the eyes are repainted, which is seen on a lot of these sculptures.

They measure 28,5 cm in height and 24,5 cm in length. They were made in a mould, and are hollow. The main rule in restoring is to respect anything original. That means no painting over original paint, and keep additions to bear necessity. In the process I found out that the drums are not original material. Interesting in having a pair is to compare them, to find out the originality of them. The arm, that looks broken off, is original for example.

There are numerous fakes on the market nowadays; if you don’t know what you’re doing only buy from trustworthy dealers. What I did when I started collecting.