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Country of Origin: Tan'g
China
Date of Origin
Tang Dynasty late 8th century
Use: Funeral
figure.
JBOC Comments: These were common
in the late 8th century in China. They were used
as figurals in "Heavenly Horse". tombs.
The horse is not a typical horse of 8th century
China but is a
Auction Catalogue Description:
CHINESE
WORKS OF ART
SALE N08112 LOT 251
SESSION 3 | 21 Sep 05 2:00 PM.
New York
A VERY RARE AND SUPERB BLACK-GLAZED POTTERY
FIGURE OF A FEREGHAN HORSE
TANG DYNASTY
220,000—250,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
262,400 USD
MEASUREMENTS
measurements note
22 1/4 in., 56.5 cm
DESCRIPTION
the elegant horse exquisitely sculpted and richly
caprisoned, standing foursquare on a rectangular
base, with head slightly turned and held high
with ears pricked in an alert attitude, the
forelock parted and also swept up in a
leaf-shaped crest, wearing a bridle hung with
palmettes, the hogged mane crenellated with three
formal notches with a tuft trailing down one side
above the shoulders, crisply grooved and striated
in cream and brown, the saddle mostly concealed
beneath a large green saddle blanket
naturalistically incised with an overall
herringbone pattern interspersed with knots to
simulate a woven cloth, furled back at one end to
show the lozenge-motif lining, all secured by
elaborate trappings, the leather straps on the
shoulders set with white tassels alternating with
green bells, the tail straps with palmettes in
green and white, the center of the rump set with
a single floret medallion and palmettes in a
quatrefoil formation, all in striking contrast to
the lustrous brownish-black of the body
CATALOGUE NOTE
Large black-glazed Tang horses adorned with a
rich saddle blanket and lavish trappings are very
rare and the present figure is particularly
unusual for its elaborately rendered furry
blanket with decorated, bordered lining, partly
revealing the saddle underneath, and for its
crenellated mane.
Although smaller in size, this horse is
reminiscent of the most famous and valuable of
all Tang horses, the black-glazed animal with
green saddle blanket from the collection of the
British Rail Pension Fund, sold in our London
rooms, 12th December 1989, lot 56, which was
similarly adorned but had a plain cropped mane
and a furry blanket revealing a plain
amber-coloured lining.
For examples of pottery figures of horses with
three crenels to the mane, known as sanhua, see
one illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, vol.
6, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 113, in the collection of
the Chinese History Museum, Beijing; and another
with sanhua, in the Shaanxi History Museum,
included in National Treasure. Collection of Rare
Cultural Relics of Shaanxi Province, Xi'an, 1998,
p. 180-181.
A very similar model of the same size but on a
cream body unearthed in 1957 from the tomb of
General Xianyu Tinghui (d. 723), southern suburbs
of Xi'an, now at the National Museum of Chinese
History, is illustrated in The Glory of the Silk
Road: Art from Ancient China, The Dayton Art
Institute , 2003, fig. 91.
The dating of this lot is consistent with the
results of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford
Authentication Ltd., no. C204c35.
Seen on www.Sothebys.com
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