A RARE AMBER AND GREEN-GLAZED RED POTTERY HUNTING GROUP

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

Details

A RARE AMBER AND GREEN-GLAZED RED POTTERY HUNTING GROUP
EASTERN HAN DYNASTY

Separately modeled as an archer seated atop a spirited horse, and a tiger: the rider with arms positioned to shoot a bow and head turned to align the shot, wearing a hat with topknot and a bag looped over his left shoulder, covered with a highly degraded green glaze; the muscular horse modeled with a horn and two bosses applied to its head as armor, the head thrown up and to the side as it neighs, and its long tail raised and ears pricked, the head and incised mane covered with a now- degraded green glaze and the body with an amber glaze; the tiger modeled with mouth open in a roar and ears pricked, the stripes of its hide indicated by scored lines, with an amber glaze on the head and pricked ears and a degraded green glaze on the body
Equestrian group 7½in. (19cm.) high; tiger 7in. (17.8cm.) long, stand

Lot Essay

An entire group such as this one appears to be extremely rare

Compare the related amber and green-glazed horse and rider, sold in these rooms, June 3, 1993, lot 211. The archer in the present example is particularly unusual as he is depicted taking a Parthian shot, a pose particularly popular in Chinese material culture during the Han and Tang dynasties, but not often found in such green and amber-glazed wares

Compare the horse from the Scheinman Collection exhibited in Born of Earth and Fire, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1992, included by Jason C. Kuo in the Catalogue, no. 20, and sold in these rooms, March 23, 1995, lot 24

A striding tiger with a green glaze in the Arthur M. Sackler Collection was included by Ezekiel Schloss in the exhibition, Art of the Han, March 14-May 27, 1979, China House Gallery, Catalogue, no. 38

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 866b60 is consistent with the dating of this lot