52. RARE STATUETTE DE CHEVAL HARNACHÉ EN TERRE CUITE Dynastie des Wei du Nord (386-534) A PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A CAPARISONED HORSE Northern Wei dynasty Well modelled standing four-square on a rectangular base, with a gracefully arched neck and a small head crisply detailed with flared nostrils, open mouth and pricked ears, the broad rump protected by leather strapwork armour suspending foliate tassels, the neck and back similarly spanned by tassel-strung straps, the back covered with a saddle draped with a cloth, with fringed ends gathering in folds each side of the saddle above a flared mud-guard combed with markings in imitation of fur, traces of pigment. 24cm (9 1/2in) high. THE PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED FRENCH FAMILY 法國顯赫家族藏品 北魏 彩繪陶馬 Provenance: Acquired in Paris by the grandfather of the present owners before 1935, and thence by descent 來源: 現任藏家祖父於1935年前於巴黎獲得，並由後人保存迄今 Several examples of pottery horses identical in size, style and quality to the present caparisoned horse and all acquired in the late 1920s and early 1930s, indicate that they may all have come from the same archaeological context, compare, for instance, a caparisoned horse of the same type formerly in the collection of George Crofts and now in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (accession number 920.5.95), illustrated in Osvald Siren, Histoire des Arts Anciens de la Chine, vol. III, La Sculpture de l'Époque Han à l'Époque Ming, Paris and Brussels, 1930, pl.338. Another figure of this type from the collection of Henri d'Ardenne de Tizac, Paris, is published in Henri d'Ardenne de Tizac, La Sculpture Chinoise, Paris, 1931, p.29, fig.XII.