A FINE AND RARE PAINTED POTTERY MODEL OF A HORSE

SIX DYNASTIES

Details

A FINE AND RARE PAINTED POTTERY MODEL OF A HORSE
six dynasties
The powerfully modelled animal standing four-square on a thin rectangular base, the prominent curved neck and sharply-bound mane arched over to the relatively small head with eyes turned downward, finely detailed with red harness and pleated ribbons, the chest adorned with a band suspending five large conch-shaped tassels, the hollow back with long crimson saddlecloths flaring widely to either side and impressed with a floral pattern, the rounded haunches covered with a squared textile above the downward-sweeping tail, much of the original pigment remaining, some restoration
11 3/8in. (29cm.) long

Lot Essay

Compare a similarly caparisoned horse in a stone relief from the north illustrated by Sun Ji in Wenwu, 1981, no.10, pp.82-88, 96 article 'The Equestrian Gear and Ornament of the Tang Dynasty' and translated with reproduced illustration in Dien, Riegel and Price, Chinese Archaeological Abstract, vol.4, p.1785, fig.4, no.1; and the example illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenzhu, vol.8, pl.139. Compare also the similar type of figure with straw-coloured glaze in the Brundage collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, pl.XV11:A

Compare also the similar horse from the Aurelius Parenti Collection sold in our New York Rooms, 3 June 1988, lot 186

The result of Oxford Thermoluminescence test, no.C97h51, is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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