Lot 1472
1472
A RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A TRICORN
A RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A TRICORN
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ANOTHER PROPERTY
A RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A TRICORN

LATE EASTERN HAN-SIX DYNASTIES PERIOD (3RD-4TH CENTURY AD)

Details
A RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURE OF A TRICORN
LATE EASTERN HAN-SIX DYNASTIES PERIOD (3RD-4TH CENTURY AD)
The sturdy beast is shown mid-stride with its horned bovine head lowered, and its long tail with curled tip is raised. A raised strip along the backbone is applied with three flat knobs. There are traces of white slip and black pigment and extensive earth encrustation.
17 ¾ in. (45 cm.) long
Provenance
Christie's New York, 1 December 1988, lot 180.

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Michael Bass
Michael Bass
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Lot Essay

This unusually large figure of a rhinoceros-like beast closely resembles one from a Western Jin dynasty (AD 265-317) tomb in Zhengzhou, Henan province, illustrated in Kaogu Tongxun, 1957:1, no. 1, pl. XIV:4. A similarly large, but slightly smaller (43.8 cm.), pottery figure of a tricorn in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated by S. G. Valenstein in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 57, no. 50.

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. C115n72 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

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