THREE UNUSUAL PAINTED GRAY POTTERY DOMESTIC ANIMALS

Details
THREE UNUSUAL PAINTED GRAY POTTERY DOMESTIC ANIMALS
WARRING STATES/HAN DYNASTY

Comprising two cows and a ram, each with knife-cut body, their facial features detailed in black, white and red pigment, with further black detailing on the horns and ruff of the ram and traces of red pigment on the hide of one of the cows, tip of one ram horn restored--8 and 5¾in. (20.3 and 14.5cm.) high (3)

Lot Essay

These appear to be of a group with two pottery figures, one a boar and the other a horse, sold in these rooms December 1, 1988, lot nos. 187 and 188. The similarity of the spontaneous style of carving, that leaves the traces of the knife visible, to that of Han wooden figures found in the area of Wuwei, Gansu, suggests that these pottery figures, too, are from the northwestern regions. See the figures of oxen in Gansusheng bowuguan, Wuwei Handai mudiao (Han wood carvings from Wuwei), Beijing, 1984, pp. 9-12

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. 666k76 is consistent with the dating of this lot