Rare Yellow-glazled Marbled Pottery Horse

The figure depicts a horse standing on all four legs, created as an animal-shaped funerary sculpture. The body is hollow-molded. The neck is gently arched, with the head lowered, and the tail projects outward. An saddle is depicted along the back.

The surface displays a naturally distributed marbled pattern in yellowish-brown tones. Natural crackling is visible across the body, with localized surface oxidation evident along some of the fissures. Marbled wares are more commonly found in bowl forms; examples executed as horse figures are comparatively rare, giving this work a high degree of scarcity.

Date : Tang-Song Dynasty
Type : Marbled pottery figure
Dimension : 19cm (Height) x 24cm (Diameter)
Condition : Good(Overall good condition for its age. Natural surface wear, crackling, and oxidation consistent with long-term burial are present. Legs show old restorations, no other major repairs or structural instability observed.)
Provenance : Acquired in late 1990s from Hongkong
Reference : 
1) Sotheby's London Important Chinese Art - 15 May 2019- Lot 20 - A RARE LARGE MARBLED MEIPING FIVE DYNASTIES - SONG DYNASTY
(Price estimate : 100,000-150,000 GBP / Type : related)
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2019/important-chinese-art-l19210/lot.20.html

2) Christies Newyork 15–16 MAR 2015 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
(Price realised : 21,250 USD / Type : related)
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5880264

* Marbled Glaze
 Marbling, or jiao tai ('mixed clay'), was a popular decoration technique on ceramics of the Tang dynasty. Although formerly thought to be derived from the tixi multi-colored lacquer tradition, recent scholarship finds the inspiration to have more likely come from marbelized glasswares of the ancient Near East. Such pieces have been found in excavations as far as Afghanistan and Korea. Evidentally Tang potters of the early 8th century adapted this technique to pottery, creating the world's earliest form of marbelized ceramics.