A Haniwa earthenware head of a woman


Kofun period (circa 300-593), 6th centuryModelled staring ahead wearing a rectangular-slab headpiece surmounted by a decorative loop, a knotted necklace around her neck, painted on the face in reddish-brown pigment, on an unrelated wood stand; with a wood storage box. The head: 21.5cm (8½in) high; overall height: 35.6cm (14in) high. (3).
|The result of an Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test (sample no.N119e8, dated 27 March 2019) is consistent with the dating of this lot.For a similarly painted face on a Haniwa head ('with body') see Kamei Masamichi, Jinbutsu, dobutsu haniwa (Haniwa figures of humans and animals), Nihon no bijutsu (Arts of Japan), no.346 (March 1995), p.6, no.9.