Country of Origin: Tang 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 Central Asian "Heavenly Horse.

Auction Catalog 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 crenelated 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
CATALOG 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 crenelated 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-colored 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.

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