Gotham Diary:
Under Glass
Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Our Tang Dynasty dancing-lady funerary ornament has arrived, and taken up a spot in the blue room that’s about as safe as any in the apartment. She’s under a dome, as you can see, although the base of the dome is already in the shop, having a slightly aged piece of mirror cut to fit. (I’m afraid that the camera focused on the reflected light, leaving our lady a bit floue.)

Is she real? We did not spend so much that finding out the circumstances under which she was counterfeited wouldn’t make an agreeable part of her provenance. There are many signs of repair, most notably about the neck (the poor dear was decapitated at one point). More than that, though — she’s just livelier and more graceful than the Tang figurines at the Museum. She might very well — for all we know — a Ching “reproduction,” improved as reproductions invariably are. I don’t begin to have the conoisseurship required for intelligent comment. We love her the way she is.

We’re considering two names for her. WWW, whose taste for chinoiserie is highly developed, suggested “La perle de Cathay,” which sounds like a pretty good moniker for everyday Gotham use (ie, “Poil”). Our friend Alison, who is a China scholar, contributed something more echt — and also more romantic.

How about Yang Guifei or Consort Yang, born in the early 8th c? not a happy ending, but she is one of the most famous Chinese beauties of them all (and same dynasty).

I’ve adopted this name provisionally; I want to hear the sad story of Yang Guifei before I commit. If it’s a truly sad story in the usual Chinese way, I’ll be fine with it. But it it turned out that Yang Guifei came to an end at all unspeakable, I’ll have to reconsider.

Whatever her name, I can’t really believe that she’s genuinely Tang. That would mean that she was a thousand years old while China was still ruled by emperors. That would mean that, when she was made, the works of Confucius were not fifteen hundred years old. It’s enough that she makes me think such things, and with all the grace in the world.