Lot 9805. A superb and extremely rare sancai zodiac horse figure, Tang dynasty; 22 cm. Lot Sold 16,384,000 HKD (Estimate 4,000,000 - 8,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2026

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of the thermoluminescence test conducted by Oxford Authentication Ltd, report no. C100a92.
 

Provenance: Eskenazi Limited, London.
A private collection, New York.
J.J. Lally & Co., New York.
Eskenazi Limited, London.
 

Exhibited: Tang Ceramic Sculpture, Eskenazi Limited, New York, 2001, cat. no. 10 and cover.
China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 2016, cat. no. 15.
Tang: Ceramics, Metalwork and Sculpture, Eskenazi Limited, New York, 2021, cat. no. 37.
 

Literature: Giuseppe Eskenazi in collaboration with Hajni Elias, A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012; Chinese edition, Shanghai, 2015, reprint, 2017, fig. 235.
Regina Krahl, 'China without Dragons. An Exhibition of the Oriental Ceramic Society', Orientations, November/December 2016, p. 93, fig. 2.
Huang Yun and Giuseppe Eskenazi, 'Dakai xinfei: Gudong ju'e tan wenwu maimai shoucang' [Opening the Heart: A Renowned Antique Dealer Talks about Antique Dealing and Collecting], Orientations (Chinese edition), March 2017, p. 87.
 

Note: Masterfully sculpted to grand proportions and robed in a coat of vibrant sancai (‘three-colour’) glaze, the present figure is among the most important examples of Tang dynasty ceramic sculpture ever to come to market. An apparently unique example of its kind, the figure represents the seventh animal in the Chinese zodiac – the horse – as a kneeling scholar; its posture proud and magnificent but with softened shoulders and a serene gaze.

Unlike the Western zodiac, which remains largely rooted in the months of the year, the twelve figures of the Chinese zodiac represent a full cosmological system founded on their duodecimal nature. From the Twelve Earthy Branches which, together with Ten Heavenly Stems, dictate the sixty-year calendar, to the twelve double-hours in a day, the zodiac has sat at the very heart of Chinese cosmology since at least the Warring States period (ca. 475–221 BCE) with a formalised set of animals associated with each division emerging by the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).

By the late Northern Wei dynasty (386–534 CE), the tradition of depicting the zodiacal divisions as animals had matured into the production of three-dimensional ceramic figurines. Moulded crudely from clay by hand, left unglazed and casually painted, these prototypical sets of figures appear in a small number of important early tomb sites and can be divided into three sub-groups: naturalistic animals, humans carrying animals, and – the present design – of animal-headed scholars. The earliest of these types to emerge appears to be the straightforward animal depictions, of which the earliest currently known examples were uncovered from Tomb M10 of the Cui Family Tombs in Linzi, Shandong province. The present style, however, was not far behind. Blending the Tang potters’ fascination with the human form, from court ladies and polo players to Lokopala guardians and officials, with their creativity and penchant for animal imagery, the ‘scholar’ zodiac figures produced during the Tang dynasty represent the zenith of the design and – kneeling, seated and standing – continued to inspire imperial zodiac designs for the next millennium. Compare a set of twelve unglazed standing figures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 2000.662.7a–l) attributed to the eighth century, illustrated on the Museum’s website; and a set of twelve, presumably imperial, jade interpretations of the design from ten centuries later, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jade Ware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 111.

As ceramic production improved, the quality of tomb assemblages similarly developed. With the advent of oxide and ash-based glazes of cream, amber and celadon, zodiacal figures were given further prestige through glazing– transforming rudimentary figures into enduring symbols that would shine from the heart of the tomb. Compare a lead-glazed standing zodiacal figure of an ox in the Koger collection from this period in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, p. 30, cat. no. 10; a celadon-glazed dragon figure uncovered from Fengying village, now preserved in the Laohekou Municipal Museum, in The Complete Collection of Ceramic Unearthed in China, vol. 13: Hubei and Hunan, Beijing, 2008, pl. 7; and three celadon-glazed figures uncovered from a Tang tomb in Wanxian, Sichuan – including a horse – illustrated in Gao Yingmin, ‘Sichuan Wanxian Tang mu’, Kaogu Xuebao, 1980:4, pl. 4, figs 1-3.

Far more elusive, however, are comparable examples of zodiac figures glazed in the so-called sancai palette of iron orange, copper green and white, let alone one of such vibrant tone and sculptural quality. Flourishing around the late seventh and early eighth century, the technique of dressing prestige wares – particularly funerary wares – in bright swathes of sancai glazes which flow and mix around the form had become a mainstay of elite pottery production. That said, to date, no other examples of this kind fully glazed in this manner appear to survive, with almost all known comparable pieces left with heads unglazed, coated in a raw white slip. For kneeling examples of related type, cruder in modelling than the present, without a decorated pedestal and with heads unglazed, compare an incomplete group of nine figures – including a rooster, dragon, snake and horse – uncovered in 1984 by the Yangzhou Agricultural Science Research Institute, now in the Yangzhou Museum, and illustrated on the Museum’s website and in Yangzhou Museum, ‘Yangzhou Situmiaozhen qingli yizuo Tangdai muzang / Excavation of a Tang Tomb at Situmiaozhen near Yangzhou’, Kaogu, 1985, no. 9, pp 859–860, pl. VI. Also compare a smaller Tang zodiac figure of a rat, with a blue-glazed head and chestnut-coloured robe, sold in our New York rooms, 6th November 1981, lot 142; and an impressive blue-splashed standing set, though much simpler and more formulaic than the present, from the collection of The Ten-Views of Lingbi Rock Retreat Collection, sold in Poly Hong Kong, 10th October 2022, lot 3230.

Sotheby's. Zoomorphia: Animal Forms in Ancient China | Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 5 May 2026