each figure cast standing atop a rectangular openwork base, with hands clasped within the long voluminous sleeves of the layered robes to support an offering, the hair swept back and drawn into two topknots, one cast on the reverse of the skirt with a fifteen-character inscription reading Xiaochengli shan ren Cao Chenghuai Jiajing san shi liu nian zao (Made by the charitable Cao Cheng Huai of Xiaochengli in the thirty sixth year of the Jiajing reign), together with a list of donor names, traces of lacquer and gilding (2)

Property of an English Private Collector.
Sotheby Parke Bernet, 22nd May 1970, lot 101.
Collection of C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love.
Christie's New York, 20th October 2004, lot 310. 

Compare a pair of cast-iron figures of luohan, dated by inscription to the 16th year of the Chenghua period (1480), sold in our London rooms, 7th November 2007, lot 261; and a large pair of cast-iron figures of Yan Wang, dated to the 12th year of the Zhengde period (1517), sold at Christie's London, 4th December 1995, lot 182.