A RARE GREEN AND AMBER-GLAZED RED POTTERY HORSE

Details

A RARE GREEN AND AMBER-GLAZED RED POTTERY HORSE
EASTERN HAN DYNASTY

The spirited horse well modeled with neck and head thrown back, rear haunches slightly lowered and tail arched as it opens its mouth in a challenging neigh, the knife-cut head well detailed, with incising delineating the wrinkles of the muzzle, the lashes and the rope halter, as it does the hair markings on the mane and tail, the neck and head covered in a dark olive-green glaze and the body with an olive-toned amber glaze ending at the top of the legs to expose the red pottery, some minor chips--10¼in. (26cm.) long

Literature

Frances Klapthor, "Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of Peter and Irene Scheinman", Orientations, September 1992, pp. 53-60, fig. 8

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9, 1992-November 8, 1992, no. 20

Lot Essay

Compare the horse of this type shown in a similar stance, but with a rider, in the Tsui Museum, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics I, Neolithic to Liao, 1993, no. 45. These glazed pottery horses are very close in style and conception to the spirited bronze horse of Wuwei, larger size, unearthed in 1969, Gansu province and included in the exhibition, Treasures from the Han, The Empress Place, Singapore, May 1990-May 1991, Catalogue, p. 29

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766d38 is consistent with the dating of this lot