A GOOD STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A HORSE

Details

A GOOD STRAW-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A HORSE
SUI DYNASTY

Modeled standing foursquare on a rectangular base, its arched neck with hogged mane, the bridled head pulled in with the ears pricked forward, a bell hung beneath its chin, the rectangular saddle set over a conforming saddle blanket molded with a simple geometric pattern, covered in a well-preserved, finely crackled yellowish glaze pooling around the hoofs on the slab-cut base, traces of reddish-orange pigment to the saddle; together with a gray pottery figure of a pack horse, Northern Wei dynasty, standing on a rectangular base, a bulging saddle pack with faintly incised details slung over its back; and a painted gray pottery figure of a cow, Han dynasty, the knife-cut animal with curled horns and bright red pigment delineating the face
12, 6 5/8 and 4¾in. (30.6, 16.8 and 12cm.) high (3)

Further details

See illustration of one

Lot Essay

The straw glaze on this horse is unusually well-preserved. Compare horses of this model illustrated by William Watson, Art of Dynastic China, Paris, 1979, no. 397; by Ezekiel Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, vol. II, Stamford, Connecticut, 1977, pl. 64; and by R. L. Hobson in the Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. I, London, 1929, pl. XXXII, no. 235