Bonhams. Roger Keverne Ltd Moving On (Part II), London, New Bond Street, 7 Jun 2021
Three green-glazed pottery 'farm' models, Han Dynasty
Lot 445. Three green-glazed pottery 'farm' models, Han Dynasty. Sold for £ 765 (€ 891). © Bonhams
Comprising a circular sheep enclosure, 20cm (8in) diam.; a rectangular pigsty with a sow feeding its young, 18cm (7in) wide; and a circular well supporting an an amphora on its edge, 22cm (8 7/8in) high.
Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: Roger Keverne Ltd., Summer Exhibition, London, 2002, no.33 (the pigsty).
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no.P106p30 dated 27 June 2006, is consistent with the dating of this lot. (circular sheep enclosure)
Note: A similar example of a pigsty is illustrated in Homage to Heaven, Homage to Earth: Chinese Treasures of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1992, p.128, no.71, where it is noted that 'pigs sometimes suckling their young were the first farm animals to appear consistently in the tombs of north China'.