Straw-glazed pottery pair of men with foreign facial features most probably Sogdian or Persian. The people from Sogdia were believed to have the best horses in Asia and Sogdians were often employed as horse grooms. Holes in their hands suggest that they used to hold a stick-like object of some kind, perhaps a banner. The depiction of foreigners as tomb models was very popular during the Sui (AD 581 – 618) and Tang (618 – 907) periods and these two figures date from those periods of time. A layer of water-base paint was originally applied over the glaze and even though most of it has gone now, the remaining traces give a good indication of how the statues must have looked. First figure: Height 21.7 cm. Width 6.1 cm. Depth 5.1 cm. Second figure: Height 22.1 cm. Width 6.1 cm. Depth 5.1 cm. THESE ITEMS WERE SOLD AT AUCTION IN 2024.