single pieces of wood, with original black and red lacquer coatingChina, Sichuan province, Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)The horse is lacquered in black with outstanding highlights in bright red. The carving style follows the minimalist formal guidelines of the period, with its dramatic archaism and simplified forms of expression. The rider, lost after millennia of burial, was once sitting on a saddle, of which the mountings are still well visible. Horse and rider probably functioned as honor guards in a ceremonial procession, a typical element of Han tomb furnishings.Several variations of such wooden horses were found and excavated during the latter part of the 20th century at Mianyang, Sichuan Province, where the lacquer industry flourished during the Han dynasty. Related examples were for example found at a Shuangbaoshan tomb and excavated in 1993, see article "Delicate and lovely, unique and strange: Art of Sichuan Province, Second Century B.C.E to Third Century C.E.," Orientations 28, no. 8, September 1997, pp. 78-84.Shape: SculpturalWeight: 24.9 kilogramsDimensions: Height 90 cm., length 78 cmCondition: Significant deterioration of the wood near the tail, which is loose as a result. Remainders of old mounts visible where the saddle used to be. The black lacquer coating is worn off in some areas to the extent that the red priming became visible. Some minor losses, chipping and small cracks as expected on a wood carving of this age.Provenance: American private collection; previously acquired from Kemin Hu, the leading Chinese scholar’s rocks specialist and author of several publications on the subject.Literature comparison: Compare with a group of four horses with riders, exhibited at the The Metropolitain Museum of Art, New York, in “Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 200)” from April 3rd, 2017 – July 16th, 2017. Sichuan sheng wenwu kaogu yanjiuyuan 四川省文物考古研究院 (Sichuan Provincial Institute of Archaeology) and Mianyang bowuguan 綿陽博物館 (Mianyang Museum). Mianyang shuangbaoshan hanmu 綿陽雙包山漢墓 (Mianyang shuangbaoshan Han tomb). Beijing: Wenwu Press, 2006: 71–91.漢代四川大型木雕漆馬兩塊連接的單件木頭雕刻,原始黑漆紅漆塗層中國,四川,西漢 (206 B.C.–A.D. 9)造型: 造像重量: 24.9 公斤尺寸: 高 90 厘米, 長 78 厘米品相:尾巴附近明顯退化鬆動。馬鞍部分可見剩餘插件;黑漆圖層局部可見露出的紅漆。與年代相符的磨損、碎裂和裂縫。 來源:美國私人收藏; 之前購於胡克敏処,胡克敏是中國文人石專家,曾出版過幾部相關書籍。