A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST

Details
A PAINTED GRAY POTTERY FIGURE OF A MYTHICAL BEAST
HAN/JIN DYNASTY

The stocky beast shown in mid-stride, its bovine head lowered, modeled with three flame-like spikes issuing from the neck and flattened bosses along the spine, with muscular haunches supported on knife-cut legs, its long, tapered tail curved upward, extensive traces of white slip and red pigment, earth encrustation (some restoration)
10½in. (26.7cm.) long, box

Lot Essay

Similar examples are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illustrated by Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, rev. ed. p. 57, no. 50; in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1962, no. 123; and in Kandai no Bijutsu, 'The Art of the Han', Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art, 1976, no. 1-118

Comparable figures have been sold in these rooms, June 3, 1988, lot 127; and another from the Scheinman Collection, sold March 23, 1995, lot 23