Bidspirit auction | Two Mid-20th Century Chinese Glazed

Two Mid-20th Century Chinese Glazed Earthenware Mudmen Figurines - Two mid-20th century Chinese glazed earthenware figurines, traditionally known as Shiwan mudmen, depicting a sleeping scholar and a fisherman. The first figurine shows a reclining male figure wearing a pale green glazed robe, a brown belt, and a black scholar cap. He rests his head against a large blue vessel. The face, hands, and feet are unglazed, exposing the natural light brown clay body. The second figurine portrays an elderly fisherman with a white beard and hair, kneeling beside a cormorant. He wears a white tunic over blue trousers with a yellow straw hat positioned on his back. The figure stands on a rocky base decorated with a thick, mottled blue, brown, and white flambé glaze and is mounted on a fitted dark wood stand. The underside of the scholar figurine features an impressed mark consisting of a square cartouche containing illegible characters above the word CHINA in capital letters. The fisherman figurine lacks visible exterior markings.