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Lot Essay
For a discussion of the Official School of hard-stone carving, see Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles. The Mary and George Bloch Collection, Vol. 2, Part 1, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 206-207, no. 258, as well as Part 2, pp. 326-345, nos. 301-307 for examples from the school carved with horses.
The horse is seen as a powerful animal and may be representational of a wish for peace. The ancient Chinese saw the horse as a representation of peace, as the person riding the horse would bring peaceful tidings, as discussed by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 240. Horses also symbolize men of talent because the character jun (steed) is a homonym for the word meaning "a talented man." The motif conveys the wish, "May you be one of the talented people."
The horse is seen as a powerful animal and may be representational of a wish for peace. The ancient Chinese saw the horse as a representation of peace, as the person riding the horse would bring peaceful tidings, as discussed by Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 240. Horses also symbolize men of talent because the character jun (steed) is a homonym for the word meaning "a talented man." The motif conveys the wish, "May you be one of the talented people."