EASTERN HAN DYNASTY (25-220 AD)

Details

A Massive Red Pottery Figure of a Horse with Saddle
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Modeled standing foresquare with head facing forward and mouth open showing the teeth and tongue, the head well modeled with crisply defined expressive features and a bridle that includes the ends of the bit and bosses at the interstices, the ears pricked alertly either side of the hogged mane which follows the line of the powerful, arched neck, and the arched tail ending in a knot, the separate saddle with high stiff cantle and saddlebow set in the middle of the back
46in. (117cm.) high and long

Lot Essay

This unusually large horse is related to another of slightly smaller size (37½in. high) in the Leshan Museum, included in the exhibition, Stories from China's Past, San Francisco, 1987, pp. 114-5, pl. 27. That similarly modeled horse without bridle has a similar saddle with upright cantle and saddlebow which, however, is not separate and rests atop a saddle cloth. Both of these horses in their expressive quality and physical details must be based on the large horses in bronze of the same period, such as the spirited example with mouth also shown open illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Diaosu bian, Qin Han diaosu, vol. 2, Beijing, 1985, p. 144.
The result of Oxford Thermoluminescence test no. 866C3 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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