A large and rare grey pottery model of a long-eared owl
Western Han DynastyModelled as a plump seated owl with long pricked ears and a crest rising from the short beak, with incised linear designs, a circular aperture to the top of the head, the wings folded back neatly against the body28.5cm. (11.1/4in) high.
注脚
The Professor Conrad Harris Collection of Early Chinese Art, formed in the late 1990's to early 2000's.Provenance: Priestley & Ferraro, 27 March 2003 (invoice) and label to base.Published: Animals for the Afterlife, Han Dynasty, Priestley and Ferraro Chinese Art, November 2002, catalogue no. 13.The unusual form of this owl bears a resemblance, with the exception of the ears, to a painted lacquer owl-shaped vessel excavated from a Warring States tomb in Sichuan, Illustrated in 'Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Daquan, A Compendium of Chinese Cultural Treasures', Works of Art Volume, p. 157.This form is rare in that published examples of pottery owls from the Han Period are usually in the form of a vessel and cover, rather than a complete model.Examples of owl form vessels in bronze, of which the present lot is a descendent, are extant from the Shang Period and were among the most commonly depicted subject for animal-form vessels from this period.Compare with a very similar pottery figure of an owl, The Hardy Collection of Early Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from the Sze Yuan Tang, Christie's New York, 21 September 1995, lot 13.