Lot 2869. A chestnut-glazed pottery figure of a boar, Tang Dynasty (618-907); 8.¼ in. (21 cm.) wide. Estimate HKD 50,000 - HKD 80,000. Price realised HKD 187,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020. 

The boar is naturalistically modelled standing foursquare on short legs on a rectangular base with head facing forward and short tail flicked to one side. It is incised with hair markings. All is covered with a chestnut-brown glaze falling to the base around the hooves. The base is unglazed.

Provenance: Eskenazi Ltd., London.

Literature: Eskenazi Ltd., London, March 1972, Catalogue, no. 31

Note: Compare a similar example dated to the eighth century from the Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection at the Seattle Art Museum, Washington, which is illustrated by W. Watson, Tang and Liao Ceramics, New York, 1984, p. 201, fig. 221. Also, compare one illustrated by E. Scholoss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture: From Han through Tang, Stanford, 1977, vol. 1, p. 76, fig. 12; and one in the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Japan, 1976, vol. 11, col. Pl. 194. A similar amber and straw-glazed figure of a boar was sold at Christie’s New York, 20 March 2001, lot 125.

The result of Oxford Authentication thermoluminescence test no. C114k9 (13 October 2014) is consistent with the dating of this lot.