A PAIR OF PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURES OF POLO PLAYERS

TANG DYNASTY

Details

A PAIR OF PAINTED RED POTTERY FIGURES OF POLO PLAYERS
Tang Dynasty
Each horse naturalistically modeled striding forward on a shaped base and turning its head sharply to the left as if reined in by the rider as they lean over to strike the ball, the two riders wearing their hair in a double topknot, the male rider with a scarf tied around his head, with traces of white and pink pigment remaining on the rich red pottery
13½in. (34.3cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

The most closely related examples appear to be a pair of red pottery polo players, also a male and a female, excavated from Luoyang and illustrated by Qin Tinyu, Zhongguo Gudai Taoshu Yishu (Chinese Ancient Ceramic Sculpture and Art), Beijing, 1957, nos. 46 and 47

Another group of polo players exists which are usually court ladies depicted on galloping horses, with the four legs extended, such as the group illustrated in the Handbook of the Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, 1959, p. 208, top left

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97c81 is consistent with the dating of this lot