A PAIR OF PAINTED GRAY POTTERY EQUESTRIAN SOLDIERS

Details

A PAIR OF PAINTED GRAY POTTERY EQUESTRIAN SOLDIERS
HAN DYNASTY

Each soldier with hands positioned and drilled to hold reins, wearing armor over a short red tunic with thick, white collar and black border to the skirt, the hair drawn up under a red helmet tied beneath the chin, one with black, close-fitting pants, the other with pants patterned in red, each sturdy horse standing foursquare and with head facing forward, one painted dark reddish-brown and the other black, one saddle blanket in pale green, the other with blue pigment, the trappings in black, red and white
14 1/8 and 13 7/8in. (35.9 and 35.2cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Compare the group of stylistically similar, but larger figures, dated to the early Western Han, unearthed in 1965 at Yangjiawan, near Xianyang, Shaanxi province. Burials containing large numbers of mounted cavalrymen and foot soldiers were found in the vicinity of the tombs of the first Han emperor, Gaozu, and the emperor Jingdi at Yangjiawan. See Wenwu, 1966, no. 3, pl. 1-4 and Wenwu, 1977, no. 10, p. 17. See also, The Quest for Eternity, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1987, Catalogue, p. 105, fig. 15

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 866b55 is consistent with the dating of this lot