14. M4956
£32,000
Description
Chinese pottery amber glazed standing horse with straw glazed head and wide bulging eyes, muscular body and unglazed saddle and cloth, loosely tied on each side with traces of original pigment, the mane ridged for hairwork attachment, the behind similarly pierced for a hairwork tail.
20 ¼ inches, 51.5 cm high.
Tang dynasty, 8th century.
Provenance & Additional Information
- From the collection of Irene and Earl (1908-1988) Morse, and thence by descent.
- Included by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in their exhibition of Spiritual and Ritual, The Morse Collection of Ancient Chinese Art, 1982, catalogue no. 41.
- Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Chinese Ceramics Tang to Song, no. 14, pp. 40-41.
- A similar smaller cream glazed horse of this model was included by J. Lally & Co. in their exhibition of Chinese Art, The Szekeres Collection, 2019, no. 22; a related horse with some trappings is illustrated by Junkichi Mayuyama in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Volume One, no. 206, p. 77; another horse in the British Museum, found in the tomb of Liu Tingxun, dated 728, of similar colour with straw glazed head and closed mouth, without a saddle, is illustrated by William Watson in Tang and Liao Ceramics, no. 220, p. 200; another was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Chinese Ceramics Han to Song, 2018, no. 9, pp. 34-7.
Condition
Available on request.
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