Page 78 - 2021 March 15th Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonhams NYC New York

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AMERICAN COLLECTION PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION
OF JAMES AND MARILYNN ALSDORF
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A BLUE-GROUND SANCAI-GLAZED IMPRESSED PALE 81
A MAGNIFICENT LARGE PAINTED GREY POTTERY
POTTERY JAR
Tang Dynasty SADDLED HORSE
Of globular outline, the body primarily blue-glazed with areas of resist Early Tang Dynasty, 7th Century
decoration with straw and ochre spotting, a molded line below the Standing foresquare on a rectangular base, the powerful head and neck
rounded shoulder which is impressed with eight five-petalled half- raised and looking slightly to its real left, the strong face naturalistically-
flowerheads, the waisted everted neck under an ochre glaze which modelled and knife-pared with rippling mouth, flared nostrils, hooded
continues to the neck interior. eyes pricked ears and taught muscled neck with neatly hogged mane,
8 1/2in (21.5cm) diam. the saddle and double-saddle cloth delicately incised and drilled with a
single grooved line at the edges and a line of holes at the back of the
$6,000 - 8,000 saddle imitating the leather prototype, the body and legs of the horse
further knife-pared and incised with the rippling skin and muscular
structure of a thoroughbred, the short tail docked.
唐 三彩罐 22 1/2in (57.3 cm) high

Provenance $10,000 - 15,000
Japanese Private Collection

來源 唐早期 七世紀 彩繪陶馬
日本私人珍藏
For a slightly smaller example of a prancing horse with head bowed
For a similar sized jar with a speckled blue glaze from the Baur and left leg raised, dated to the Late Six Dynasties-early Tang period,
Collection, Geneva, Switzerland, no. 596, see William Watson, 6th/7th century, see Eskenazi, Early Chinese Art from Tombs and
Tang and Liao Ceramics, P. 165, fig 157, where it is assigned to Temples, London, 1993, pp. 106-107, no. 35. That horse, like ours,
manufacture in Henan or Shaanxi Provence around the first half of the displays great attention to the naturalism of these magnificent beasts,
8th century, and where the unusual combination of colors, reserved quite unlike that found on the later red, buff and white pottery examples
passages of cream and dabs of brown set on a blue ground, are of the Tang period that were produced primarily in molds in greater
remarked on. numbers. The exceedingly heavy weight of our horse also suggests
that an iron armature may well have been embedded within the legs of
A smaller blue and sancai-glazed jar with applied medallions rather our horse before firing.
than impressed ones is illustrated by Ben Janssens, TEFAF 2015
Catalogue, and www.benjanssens.com - Pottery, un-numbered. For another large figure of a horse dated Northern Wei Dynasty, first
Another sold at Christie’s, New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1451. half of 6th Century CE, from the MOA Museum of Art, Shizuoka,
see Special Exhibition Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo National Museum,
For a plain blue-glazed jar, see Sotheby’s, London, Tang Sancai-The October-November, 1994, p. 62, no. 88.
Sze Yaun Tang Collection, 4 November 2020, lot 212.
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NO LOT
76 | BONHAMS