PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. WALLACE AND ALICE SMITH, SAN FRANCISCO TWO MAGNIFICENT GLAZED POTTERY PRANCING HORSESTang dynasty (618-906) Handsomely modeled and realistically rendered, each horse with expressive pricked ears, round eyes, flared nostrils, and open mouth showing bear teeth, the head lowered slightly to the left while its right foreleg raised as if ready to stride forward, the tail docked and neatly tied, standing gracefully on a rectangular plank base connecting three feet, one horse glazed in rich chestnut color with green and cream picked out on the forehead, the other horse glazed in black with green strips on the forehead, an opening at the bottom of the belly made to reduce weight and for efficient firing. 23in and 22 1/4in (58.4cm and 56.5cm) high 唐 栗釉黑釉提腿陶馬兩隻 Provenance: Property from collection of Dr. Wallace and Alice Smith, San Francisco, in the collection prior to 1971, by descent 出處： 舊金山 Wallace and Alice Smith 醫師與夫人舊藏，1971 年以前入藏，後由家族傳承 It is rare to find two horses of this type in such generous size. The well-balanced proportion and naturalistic modeling may attribute the present examples to early Tang dynasty. A pair of very similarly modeled horses of smaller size discovered from the tomb of Li Siben (dated by epitaph to A.D. 709) in Yanshi, near Luoyang, Henan province, is illustrated in a line drawing in the excavation report The Tang Tombs in Yanshi Xingyuan , Beijing, 2001, p. 49, pl. 43-1. Note: The dating of the two horses is consistent with the results of Thermoluminescence test samples 366h62 and 366h3 rendered by the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford, 13 December 1984.