Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A MASSIVE CHINESE POTTERY MODEL OF A HORSE

TANG DYNASTY

depicted standing four-square on a rectangular base, its head raised and turned slightly to the left, with bulging eyes, flaring nostrils and the left ear cocked back, with a deep groove to the neck originally for fixing the mane and the tail set with white and grey horse hair, with traces of black and red pigment to the surface

92.5cm high

This lot is offered together with a copy of the Oxford Authentication Thermoluminescence Analysis Report, sample no.77d18, dated 21st December 1994.

Provenance

From an English private collection, Sussex.

Catalogue Note

During the Tang dynasty, horses were valued as an important status symbol in Chinese society. Strict sumptuary laws regulated the ownership of horses, which were only the privilege of the aristocracy. Hence, they figured prominently not only in the painting and poetry of the time but were also a popular theme in funerary wares. The type of horses depicted was Ferghana stock from Central Asia, an import highly prized in China since the Han dynasty. Usually portrayed tacked up with saddles and other trappings, the example offered here is unusual for being untacked, thereby placing a greater emphasis on the strong physical appearance of the animal. This composition closely relates it to two glazed examples reputedly excavated from the tomb of General Liu Tingxun (d.728) in Luoyang, Henan province, later in the collection of George Eumorfopoulos and now in The British Museum, London, accession nos.1936,1012.226 and 1936,1012.227. Another similar glazed example can be seen in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no.51.66.