Beschreibung:

Property of a Channel Islands collector A Rare and Important Massive Sancai-Glazed Pottery Figure of a Ferghana Horse Tang dynasty (618-907), the well modeled, muscular animal standing four-square on a rectangular unglazed plinth base, with the head tilted slightly downwards to the left with mouth open and ears pricked forward, covered with a finely crackled deep olive green glaze streaked in bottle green on the left shoulder and pooling to very deep green on the legs, the head, forelock and long mane sweeping to the left striped in bottle green, olive green, dark brown and clear glaze, the heavily textured saddle blanket roughly textured and built up to imitate fur, with brown glazed highlights to the raised detail and to the dressed, upturned tail, the green glaze falling in streaks onto the straw glazed back hooves, 23in. (58.5cm.) high, 25in. (63.5cm.) long. * Accompanied by a professional thermoluminence analysis report by Laboratory Ralf Kotalla, Haigerloch, Germany, dated 3rd November 2004, dating the horse to 1,200 years old (+/- 20%). *Condition: Typical and expected very fine glaze crazing overall. Some lifting / blistering to the glaze to the main body areas - we have been informed by the owner that some professional conservation work was carried out by ************* to ensure that the glaze was stablilised and suffered no further deterioration. When examined under UV light, there are a couple of very small touched-in / varnished spots to the glaze as a result of this process to the back of the horse's body, one larger patch (approx. 20 x 15mm) to the left side of the head, between the eye and mane and approx. a dozen others to the front left shoulder / top of leg / neck which are similar and are visible with the naked eye under close examination. There are also 6-8 in the same areas to the right side, forelock and tip of right ear, plus a large patch to the right side of the head where there appears to be some painted restoration to the surface of the glaze, again carried out during this stabilisation process. The ears and tail appear to be free from repairs. There are several very old chips to the underside of the plinth edges and corners. Small drilled hole to LH side of plinth edge, probably from during testing for lab. report. Overall a fine example in good condition with no major repairs or damage and no damage to the delicate tail or ears.