SUI/EARLY TANG DYNASTY, 6TH-7TH CENTURY

Details

A Rare Cream-Glazed Pottery Figure of a Horse
Sui/early Tang dynasty, 6th-7th century
Finely molded standing foursquare on an unglazed, shaped base with the head pulled in towards the chest and the arched neck with hogged mane, the detailed bridle buckled at the crown and detailed with trefoil medallions at the bit, the chest strap applied with five tufted tassels and the rump trappings looping under the tail and secured with a central foliate medallion hung with further pendent foliate medallions, the deep saddle and pendent stirrups set atop a thick square saddle blanket, covered overall in a finely crackled glaze of cream color
13in. (33 cm.) high

Provenance

Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1990, C.C. Wang Family Collection, lot 18.

Literature

A. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese Art in the C.C. Wang Family Collection, Seattle and London, 1988, pl. 48.

Lot Essay

A similar example, more simply formed and without the elaborate trappings, excavated in Liquan county, Shaanxi province, from the tomb of Zhang Shigui, a general commissioned between A.D. 633 and 648 and buried in one of the accompanying tombs of Emperor Tang Taizong's mausoleum is illustrated by A. Juliano, Bronze, Clay and Stone: Chinese Art in the C.C. Wang Family Collection, fig. 48(a). Two further similar examples, with less well-formed body and with less elaborate trappings are illustrated by R.L. Hobson, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection, Catalogue of Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelian, London, vol. 6, 1928, pl. XVI, fig. 63.

More from Fine Chinese Furniture, Ceramics and Works of Art

View All