LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

In Mandarin and Menagerie (Surrey, 2008) co-authors M. Cohen and W. Motley note that the horse was "...introduced to northeast China about five thousand years ago (and) an essential ingredient in the power and control of such a huge empire..." (p. 188.) The horse remained an integral part of Qing China; yet another animal as familiar to the Chinese as to 18th century Europeans. Other export horses, notably stiffer in their modeling, have been sold Sotheby's, New York, 18 January 2002, lot 113 (a dappled pair); Christie's, New York, 25-26 January 2002, lots 104 and 105 (a single), and the Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Mottahedeh Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 390 (a single).