Page 48 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art London Nov. 2019

28
A VERY LARGE AND RARE LACQUERED-WOOD MODEL
OF A HORSE
Western Han Dynasty
The horse shown standing four-square with head facing forward and
mouth slightly open, the body carved from one piece of wood, and the
tail carved separately, with detailed nostrils and eyes, arched neck and
short legs, with traces of pigment.
73cm (28 3/4in) long.

£20,000 - 30,000
CNY180,000 - 270,000

西漢 彩漆木雕立馬

Provenance: Jacques Barrere, Paris, 30 March 1998
John J. Studzinski CBE, London

來源：法國巴黎，Jacques Barrere，1998年3月30日
大英帝國司令勳章受勳者John J. Studzinski珍藏

The result of the Isotrace Radiocarbon Laboratory, Toronto,
Sample TO-6506 carbon 14 test, 1998, notes 95.5% probability
of the date between 125 BC and 10 AD.

加拿大多倫多Isotrace Radiocarbon Laboratory實驗室碳-14測定結
果（1998年，樣本TO-6506）顯示本拍品有95.5%的可能性處於公元
前125年至公元10年之間。

Standing foursquare and carved from a single piece of wood, the ‘the Heavenly Horse incarnates divine prowess, holds the foreign enemy
present horse is exceptionally rare as wood horses dating to the Han in submission, crossing the sands, it convinces the barbarians of its
dynasty usually had the body carved from one piece of wood and the power’ Han Wudi mentioned in his hymn included in the ‘Rituals and
legs carved separately. Music’ chapter of the ‘Book of Han’ (Hanshu 漢書).

The present horse may have been deemed to embody one of the Because of their endurance and speed, the horses of Ferghana were
‘heavenly horses’, tianma, 天馬, which Han emperor Wudi had associated with power and prestige and even thought of to posses
imported from Dayuan, present-day Ferghana, for use in battles divine powers to transport the emperor to heaven. See C.Michaelson,
against the Xiongnu nomads. According to historical records, Wudi Gilded Dragons. Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages, London,
ordered a gilded bronze horse to donate as a gift to the ruler of the 1999, pp.47-48. See also Lin Ying, Celestial Horses, Beijing, 2002.
Western Region, in the hope that he would, in return, present the
Han emperor with some of his swift, long-legged, horses. Upon the A closely related example of a lacquered wood model of a horse, Han
foreigner’s rejection of the gift, Wudi appointed General Li Guangli to dynasty, carved from a single piece of wood and of a similar size as
seize the sought-after horses and wage war against Ferghana. The city the present example, is illustrated by the Chengdu Municipal Institute
finally collapsed under the surrender terms of a treaty consisting of an of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Jingzhou Conservation Center,
annual tribute of three thousand ‘heavenly horses’ to be paid to the ‘The Laoguanshan Cemetery of the Western Han Dynasty in Tianhui,
Han empire. Chengdu’, in “Chinese Archaeology”, 2015, vol.15, p.70; another model
of a horse, Western Han Dynasty, carved from a single piece of wood, in
the Portland Art Museum, Ohio, is illustrated by D.Jenkins, Masterworks
in Wood: China and Japan, Portland, 1976, pp.20-21, no.1.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
46 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.