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18 This fierce-looking animal was interred in Han dynasty tombs and
A GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A THREE-HORNED MYTHICAL probably deemed to ward off the evil spirits from the afterlife of the
BEAST tomb occupant. This animal may be one of the fantastic animals
Han Dynasty described in the Book of Later Han, 後漢書, compiled in the fifth
The stocky beast moulded in mid stride, its bovine head lowered, century, as creatures providing contacts with the spirit world, heralding
modelled with three flame-like spikes issuing from the neck and in good fortune, keeping evil at bay, or appearing when auspicious
flattened bosses along the spine, its long tapered tail curved upward. events where about to occur.
28cm (11in) long

£2,000 - 3,000 CNY18,000 - 28,000 A similar creature included in the Schloss Collection, is illustrated in
HK$22,000 - 33,000 Ancient Chinese Sculpture - Han through Tang, 1977, vol. 1, pl. 18.
another example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is illustrated by
漢 陶胎鎮墓獸 S.Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989,
p.57, no. 50.

Provenance: Rolf, Lord Cunliffe (1899-1963), Honorary Keeper of the
Far Eastern Collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Acquired from William H. Wolff by Bluett & Sons Ltd., London,
3 June 1957
Acquired from Bluett & Sons Ltd., London, 4 June 1957
The Cunliffe Collection, no.PH12, and thence by descent

來源： 劍橋菲茨威廉博物館東方藝術部名譽主任，Rolf Cunliffe勳爵

(1899-1963)
於1957年6月4日購自倫敦古董商Bluett & Sons Ltd.
Cunliffe收藏，藏品編號PH12，並由後人保存迄今

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