A RARE PAINTED POTTERY HORSE WITH A ‘PHRYGIAN’ RIDER AND TIGER CUB, TANG DYNASTY
China, 618-906. The horse standing foursquare on a rectangular base with its head turned slightly to one side, the stout body and bobbed tail evenly painted with dark pigments, contrasting with the white mane, ears, and face as well as the striped tiger fur lined saddle. Supporting a rider raising his right hand in a fist while the other tightly grasps a tiger cub. The man dressed in a green garb with brown boots, his face with a fierce expression, pursed red lips, and a thick black beard, the head surmounted by a red Phrygian cap. The feline with its claws dug deep into the horse’s rump, holding on for dear life.


Provenance:
From a private collection in New York, USA.

Condition:
Some repair, filling and touchups as generally expected from Tang dynasty excavations. Losses, fissures, firing cracks, and encrustations, remnants of pigments. Natural wear and weathering overall.

Weight: 3,874 g
Dimensions: Height 43.5 cm


The rider depicted here is a foreigner
from the West, as evidenced by his Phrygian cap. The Tang aristocracy had an interest in the hunting styles of nomadic peoples from Central Asia, and they would often gather to witness staged hunts. Ancient Greek authors used ‘Phrygian’ as an umbrella term to describe a vast ethno-cultural complex located mainly in the central areas of Anatolia rather than a name of a single tribe or people. As a result of this, ‘Phrygian’ riders appear various depictions and different cultures, including the Tang dynasty, although the Phrygians were already extinct 1,500 years earlier.


Literature comparison:

Compare a closely related figure on a horse, dated to the Tang dynasty, 30.7 cm high, excavated from the tomb of Princess Yongtai, Qianxian, Shaanxi Province, 1960-62, in the Shaanxi History Museum, illustrated by Watt, China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, p. 307, no. 198. Compare five painted pottery hunting figures, unearthed from the tomb of Yu Yin and Princess Jinxiang in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, illustrated by Yang, The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China, Washington, 1999, pp. 492-493, no. 170, where the author notes that “[h]unting and the hunting style of foreign peoples (including their use of exotic animals) were of particular interest to the leisured Tang aristocracy.”


Auction result comparison:

Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 23 March 2019, lot 1532
Price: USD 7,500 or approx.
EUR 8,500
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A pair of painted pottery equestrians, Tang dynasty
Expert remark: Note the size (40.6 cm) and that the lot comprises a pair.


Auction result comparison:

Type: Closely related
Auction: Bonhams New York, 19 March 2018, lot 8039
Price: USD 8,750 or approx.
EUR 10,000
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A horse and rider with hound, Tang dynasty
Expert remark: Note the size (35.5 cm).




唐代彩繪胡人騎馬斗虎俑

騎馬胡人頭戴襆頭，濃眉虯髯，下著窄腿褲，足蹬靴。一隻兇猛的老虎撲躍上馬，張牙舞爪，胡人在馬上側身用左手抓住身後豹子，怒視斷喝，右手高舉作擊打狀；駿馬筋骨勻停。胡人、獵豹、駿馬三者動靜結合，相得益彰。


來源：
美國紐約私人收藏。

品相：
小修、填充、缺損、燒製裂紋、結垢、顏料殘留，整體自然磨損和風化。

重量：3,874 克
尺寸：高43.5 厘米


文獻比較：

比較一件非常相近的唐代人物騎馬俑，高30.7 厘米，1960-62年出土於永泰公主墓，收藏於陝西歷史博物館，見Watt，《China: Dawn of a Golden Age，200-750 AD》，大都會藝術博物館，紐約，頁307，編號198。比較五件彩繪狩獵陶俑，出土於陝西西安金鄉公主與何晏墓，見Yang，《The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of China》，華盛頓，1999年，頁492-493，編號170，作者指出；「唐朝貴族對狩獵和胡人的狩獵方式（包括他們對奇異動物的使用）特別感興趣」。


拍賣結果比較：

形制：非常相近
拍賣：紐約蘇富比，2019年3月23日，lot 1532
價格：USD 7,500（相當於今日
EUR 8,500
）
描述：唐陶加彩騎馬俑一對
專家評論：請注意尺寸(40.6 厘米) ，以及此為一對。


拍賣結果比較：

形制：非常相近
拍賣：紐約邦翰斯，2018年3月19日，lot 8039
價格：USD 8,750（相當於今日
EUR 10,000
）
描述：唐彩繪騎馬俑
專家評論：請注意尺寸(35.5 厘米)。