A PAINTED POTTERY GROUP OF AN OX AND CART

Details

A PAINTED POTTERY GROUP OF AN OX AND CART
EARLY TANG DYNASTY

The ox standing foursquare, with head facing forward and modeled with a harness terminating in leaf appliques at the neck, with a pronounced hump and dewlap, the cart with arched roof projecting at either end to protect a doorway in back and a low-railinged enclosure in front set before a series of molded vertical slats, the sides pierced with three holes centering painted decoration, with a pair of separate, spoked wheels, traces of black, red, orange and pale green pigment and white slip (some restoration)
Ox 8½in. (21.6cm.) long, cart 9 3/4in. (24.8cm.) long, wood stand

Lot Essay

For an earlier prototype featuring a cart with a similar sloping divided roof, dating to the Northern Dynasties, and modeled in bronze, see Zhongguo wenwu jinghua (Gems of China's Cultural Relics), Wenwu Press, Beijing, 1993, no. 98

See, also, a dark-brown-glazed cart of similar form shown with an ox and two figures, dated to the Six dynasties period, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, New York, 1992, p. 144, fig. 92