19th Century, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, Jewellery and Wine
Live Virtual Auction, 11 - 13 April 2021
Oriental Works of Art
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About this Item
A large Chinese painted pottery figure of a horse, Tang Dynasty, AD 619-906
naturalistically modelled with right leg raised, the finely potted face tilted to the left with eyes wide, mouth agape and ears alert, with saddle and blanket, the body painted with traces of a harness, reigns, and saddle cloth, raised on a later rectangular base, traces of red, orange, yellow and black pigment, restorations, hairline cracks, 56,4cm high
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.
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