A RARE STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A HORSE

Details

A RARE STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A HORSE
TANG DYNASTY

Well modeled standing four-square on a rectangular base with head turned sharply to the left as if to look at something, with mouth open and ears alertly pricked forward, the full body covered in a yellowish-green straw glaze falling to pale amber-glazed hoofs, the crisply modeled saddle and layered saddle blankets left unglazed, the neck grooved for a mane and the rump socketed for a tail, with red and black pigment detailing the eyes, nostrils and mouth, restored
18 7/8in. (45.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

It is rare to find a figure of a horse with head turned sharply in this manner, as opposed to the usual very slight turn to the left. A painted pottery horse with head even more sharply turned and looking down is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji; gongyi meishu; taoci (A Complete Collection of Chinese Art; Arts and Crafts; Ceramics), vol. 2, Shanghai, 1988, p. 62, no. pl. 71 and a sancai-glazed horse with sharply turned head, also looking down, is in the Idemitsu Museum, illustrated in the 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Tokyo, 1981, no. 626. In neither of these, however, is the head turned in such an inquisitive manner. For another straw-glazed, full-bodied horse, this time with its head lowered to bite its foreleg, see Zhongguo meishu quanji; diaosu; Sui Tang diaosu (The Great Treasury of Chinese Fine Arts; Sculpture; Sui and Tang Sculpture), Beijing, 1988, p. 155, pl. 153

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766n58 is consistent with the dating of this lot