A FINE LARGE POTTERY FIGURE OF A STRIDING CAPARISONED HORSE

Estimated Value:

4.000 € - 6.000 €

Result:

incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

China, Northern or Eastern Wei dynasty, 6th c.
H. 50 cm
Striding on a trapezoidal base, the head well modelled with its mouth closed and notched ears pricked up on either side of a feather ornament, with a tasseled rope looped around the top of the neck and tufted ornaments on the chest collar, the back covered with a long cloth gathered at the bottom atop the flaring mud guard, the rump protected by leather strapwork armor hung with tassels, the back is draped with a cloth with fringed ends, with traces of red pigment.
From a European private collection, acquired at L.H.W. Hong Kong, November 2003, the results of a TL analysis (Oxford, C103x88, 25 November 2003) is consistent with the dating of this lot - Traces of age, wear, minor rest.
Stylistically, the present horse is similar to one unearthed in Cixian, Hebei province in 1979 from the tomb of an Eastern Wei princess of the Ruru nationality. See Wenwu, 1984:4, pl. 5, fig. 2, and p. 6, fig. 7, no. 3, for a line drawing of the horse. Compare, also, two other similar Eastern Wei horses shown standing foursquare, one in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard University, illustrated by V. Bower and R. Mowry, From Court to Caravan: Chinese Tomb Sculptures from the Collection of Anthony M. Solomon, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, p. 92, no. 19: and one included in Early Dynastic China: Works of Art from Shang to Song, J. J. Lally & Co., New York, 26 March - 26 April 1996, no. 5. Another comparable Eastern Wei horse shown standing foursquare, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece, III, sold by Christie's New York, 18 September 2003, lot 201, and a very similar example sold by Christie's New York, 21 September 2004, lot 177. The most recent related horse was sold by Bonhams New York, 16 September 2024, lot 18.

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