A PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A STRIDING CAPARISONED HORSE

EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (534-550)

Details

A PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A STRIDING CAPARISONED HORSE
EASTERN WEI DYNASTY (534-550)
Shown striding on a trapezoidal base, the head well modelled with mouth open and notched ears pricked either side of a feather ornament, with a tasseled rope looped around the top of the neck and tufted ornaments on the chest collar, the back covered with a long cloth gathered at the bottom atop the flaring mud guard, the crouper on the rump centered by a foliate 'fire pearl' and hung with unusual lion-mask appliques suspending small tassels, with traces of white and red pigment and gold foil
13 in. (33cm.) high

Lot Essay

Stylistically, the present horse is similar to one unearthed in Cixian, Hebei province in 1979 from the tomb of an Eastern Wei princess of the Ruru nationality. See Wenwu, 1984:4, pl. 5, fig. 2, and p. 6, fig. 7, no. 3, for a line drawing of the horse. Compare, also, two other similar Eastern Wei horses shown standing foursquare, one in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, illustrated by V. Bower and R. Mowry, From Court to Caravan: Chinese Tomb Sculptures from the Collection of Anthony M. Solomon, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, p. 92, no. 19: and one included in Early Dynastic China: Works of Art from Shang to Song, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 26 March - 26 April 1996, no. 5. Another comparable Eastern Wei horse shown standing foursquare, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece, III, sold in these rooms, 18 September 2003, lot 201.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C102z59 is consistent with dating of this lot.

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