A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY EQUESTRIAN DRUMMER

NORTHERN WEI POTTERY FIGURES

Details

A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY EQUESTRIAN DRUMMER
NORTHERN WEI DYNASTY

The musician wearing a cloth tied atop his upswept hair and black robes over black pants gathered below the knee with a red cord, his left hand raised to his chest, the right holding his drum against the arched neck of the sturdy, red-painted horse, its harness and rump straps crisply molded, as are the delineating lines on the pale green saddle blanket, some restoration--8½in. (21.5cm.) high, box

Literature

Frances Klapthor, "Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of Peter and Irene Scheinman", Orientations, September 1992, pp. 53-60, fig. 9

Exhibited

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Born of Earth and Fire, Chinese Ceramics from the Scheinman Collection, September 9-November 8, 1992, no. 26

Lot Essay

Compare the very similar drummer wearing the same head covering included in the Beauty of all Beauties, the eighth exhibition organized by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Misukoshi, Tokyo, 1976, Catalogue, no. 42. A similar figure where the drummer is wearing a longer helmet is in the Princeton University Art Museum, included in the exhibition Ming Ch'i, The Katonah Gallery, Katonah, New York, April 12-June 20, 1975, Catalogue, no. 48; and two are illustrated in Kaogu, 1973:4, pl. 10, fig. 3, and p. 221, fig. 5 (1), the former excavated from the Northern Wei tomb of Yuan Shao, Luoyang, dated to A.D.528

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 766d31 is consistent with the dating of this lot