Notes

One of the 'Six Livestock', referred to in The Rites of Zhou, used to be the domesticated horse. It was the embodiment of prestige, associated with stability, as well as a transferable marker of wealth. During the Tang Dynasty, ownership of horse statues was asserted as an aristocratic privilege in an edict forbidding artisans and tradesmen this right.

Provenance

Purchased from Konrad O. Bernheimer Kunsthandel, Munich-London, Promenadeplatz 13, Munich, 6 November 1989.

Thermoluminescence report dated 15 April 1988, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, 6 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3QJ.

Property of a Connoisseur.

Literature

cf. Schmidt, R. (1924) Chinesische Keramik von der Han-Zeit bis zum XIX Jahrhundert, Frankfurt, Frankfurter Verlag, pl 11, where a similar example is illustrated.