The Eumorfopoulos Collection: Ceramics

Chinese

British Museum

206 BC-907 AD

These pieces were once housed and displayed at 7 Chelsea Embankment, the home of avid Chinese, Korean and Near Eastern art collector George Eumofopulos. Though he had intended to bequeath the collection to the nation, the Depression of the 1930s forced him instead to sell it to the nation at a preferential rate. The early wares examples of Han and Tang pottery pre 907 and of the Six Dynasties are of special interest including 1) Figure of a Foreigner; 2) Figure of a Lady. These statuettes formed the contents of tombs which were excavated and broken up as result of the building of the Chinese railway network. The figures are of an elegantly dressed lady and of a black boy with his right arm raised who was probably intended to depict a young groom, holding the reigns of a horse.

• Medium: pottery
• Art Fund Grant: £2500
• ArtFunded in: 1935
• Vendor: G Eumorfopoulos

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