Page 54 - March 22 2022 Bonhams

For a horse of similar type and size and also modeled with a dark- excavated bronze examples, see Yutaka Mino and James Robinson,
glazed ‘fur’ saddle-cloth set against a paler body tone, see Tang op. cit., p. 174, pl. 61, fig E and line drawings of plaques in Wenwu,
Chang’an chengjiao Sui Tan mu, Beijing, 1980, col. pl. 3. It was 1981, no. 10, p. 85, figs. 1-8.
excavated in Xi’an in Shaanxi province from the tomb of Xianyu
Tinghui, a high official buried in 723. The same horse is illustrated A feature on our horse that is seldom seen in any of the sculptural
by Yutaka Mino and James Robinson, Beauty and Tranquility: The horse’s renderings of the Tang dynasty is the backward-flicked left
Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983, ear of our model, which very naturalistically captures the moment
p. 174, fig. B. It too has a hogged mane but slightly more elaborate that the horse attention is caught by a nearby sound or the unwanted
head harness then ours, tufts that replace the medallions on the interest of an insect.
chest of our horse, a slightly larger ‘fur’ blanket, and more elaborate
trappings on the hind quarters. As the authors note, drawing from It is also extremely rare to find a horse with a pale green-glazed body.
Edward H Schafer’s, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand, Los
Angeles, 1963, p. 59, “Such horses were highly prized by their More common are those with yellow, ochre and brown body glazes.
owners. Aside from being conspicuously expensive and beautiful Compare, for example, the slightly smaller saddled horse with dark-
mounts, fine horses were an important basis of military power and glazed ‘fur’ blanket illustrated by John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics
much celebrated in Chinese history and legend. Horsemanship in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tokyo, 1980, monochrome pl.
was considered a privilege of the ruling classes and was prohibited 46; an ochre-ground horse with simulated ‘fur’ blanket but without
to artisans and tradesmen by an Imperial edict in 667. The taller, trappings illustrated Royal Ontario Museum, The T. T. Tsui Galleries of
fleeter central Asian and Arabian strains were considered especially Chinese Art, Toronto, 1996, pl. 72; Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Tokyo,
desirable and were associated with the divine steeds of ancient 1976, vol. 1, pl. 202, with un-hogged mane; Ezekiel Schloss, Ancient
mythology. During the early Tang period the extension of the borders Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, Stamford, Connecticut, 1977, vol. II, col.
of the empire westward than at any previous time in history ensured pl. V; Kaogu, 1972, no. 3, pl. 8, fig. 2, from Henan province; Oriental
the supply of horses for the state. It also opened the empire to Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, 1982, Vol. 1, Tokyo
extensive foreign contacts and a bustling foreign trade. The lavish National Museum, col. pl. 64; an example excavated in 1963 at
style of the ornamentation of the imported horses, appears to be Guanlin Tomb no. 2, Luoyang, illustrated in Luoyang Tang Sancai/The
of foreign origin as well, probably deriving from the customs of the Sancai Wares of the Tang Dynasty in Luoyang, Beijing, 1980, pl. 72.
nomadic, hunting, and herding cultures to whom the horse was the
chief means of livelihood” For other examples, see Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 2021, lot
104, with a similar dark-green glazed simulated ‘fur’ blanket and un-
The ‘apricot’-leaf-shaped medallions attached to the strapwork hogged mane; Sotheby’s, London, 12 May 2021, lot 6, with a sancai-
around the body, imitate the gilt-bronze horse furnishings discovered glazed simulated ‘fur’ saddle cloth; Christie’s, New York, 16th March
in various excavations. These elaborate trappings characteristically 2015, lot 3225, for a chestnut-glazed horse with similar trappings
show the influence of Sassanian art on that of 8th century China. and ‘fur’ blanket; Christie’s, New York, 21 March 2002, lot 103, with a
The complex, jewel-like decorations applied to the harness of this straw-glaze ground; and the famed Fereghan horse from the British Rail
horse are mirrored in other Chinese decorative arts of the period. For Pension Fund sold at Sotheby’s, London, 12 December 1989, lot 56.

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