A LARGE PAINTED GRAY POTTERY TORSO AND HEAD OF A HORSE

Details

A LARGE PAINTED GRAY POTTERY TORSO AND HEAD OF A HORSE
HAN DYNASTY

The torso well painted with red straps outlined in white criss-crossed around the body and superimposed over a series of black straps, one of which continues over the back where it divides into five gracefully draped sections, the separate, well-modeled head with carved creases above each eye and detailed in red and white pigment, with an aperture in the top of the neck and apertures for the insertion of legs
20 3/4in. (52.7cm.) long

Lot Essay

Although several horses of this type have been published, the fluidly painted black straps on the body of the animal are unusual. A similar horse with extensive painted decoration in the Eumorfopoulos Collection is illustrated by Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 5; and others of this type are illustrated in the China Institute exhibition, Art of the Han, 1979, Catalogue, no. 35; in the Hoyt Collection Catalogue, vol. I, pl. 32; and in Kandai no Bijutsu, Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art, 1976, pl. 27

Examples with less elaborate painting, but with similar strapwork on the body, have been sold in these rooms. Compare a pair of horses sold December 2, 1986, lot 35; another, June 2, 1989, lot 121; and in our London rooms, December 8-9, 1986, lot 50

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766h99 is consistent with the dating of this lot