EASTERN HAN DYNASTY (AD 25-220)

This remarkably large and powerfully rendered pottery horse is similar in style to other Eastern Han examples from Sichuan province in central China, such as the smaller (106 cm. high) example from Majiashan, Xinduxian, illustrated in Wenwu ziliao congkan, vol. 9, 1985, pl. VI:5, and the example from Chengdu, also of smaller size (114 cm. high), illustrated in Kaogu xuebao, vol. 1, 1958, pl. 9:3. Like the present figure, these pottery horses display sharp modeling of the head with open mouth and flaring lips, bulging eyes, clipped mane, knotted tail, long neck held nearly upright, and are also shown prancing. Another similarly rendered Eastern Han pottery horse, but covered in a green glaze and shown standing foursquare, and of larger size (139.7 cm. high), in the collection of the Princeton University Art Musuem, is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Recarving China’s Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the “Wu Family Shrines”, Princeton University Art Museum, 2005, no. 50.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97e26 is consistent with the dating of this figure.