A Rare Sancai-Glazed Pottery Figure of a Neighing Caparisoned Horse

TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Details

A Rare Sancai-Glazed Pottery Figure of a Neighing Caparisoned Horse
Tang dynasty (618-907)
Unusually modeled with head extended and mouth open in a challenging neigh, the taut, muscular neck enhanced by a hogged mane glazed in amber, as is the docked tail, lower legs and muzzle, the chest strap and crupper molded with florets and hung with unusual combed palmette decorations, which are repeated on the sides of the bridle which stands out from the underside of the neck and is further applied with cheek bars and a foliate-molded 'apricot leaf', the saddle covered with a green cloth gathered on the sides atop the splash-glazed saddle pad, all in contrast to the straw-glazed body with its subtle underglaze-white piebald markings
22½in. (52.1cm.) long

Provenance

Heurtais, Paris.

Lot Essay

Compare a similarly vocal sancai-glazed horse with extended neck in The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, illustrated by R. Ward and P. Fidler (eds.), A Handbook of the Collection, New York, 1993, p. 292. See, also, similarly glazed and postured examples from the Nezu Collection, Tokyo, illustrated by O. Siren, Histoire des Arts Anciens de la Chine, III, La Sculpture de L'Époque Han a L'Époque Ming, Paris, 1930, pl. 97B; and in Meisterwerke aus China, Korea, und Japan, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt Köln, 1977, p. 37, no. 30. The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C103a32 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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