Ancient Han Dynasty Painted Grey Pottery Recumbent Horse – China, 206 BCE – 220 CE

A finely molded Chinese painted grey pottery figure of a recumbent horse, dating to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), from the distinguished David and Beverly Hall Billings Collection, Nantucket, Massachusetts. This example is illustrated in Passion and Pursuit: The Billings Collection (The Ming Press, 2022) — the definitive catalogue of one of America’s most respected private collections of Asian art — on page 21, providing exceptional published provenance documentation of the highest order.

The figure is expertly modeled with stylized facial features including pronounced cheekbones, protruding eyes, and flared nostrils over an open mouth, demonstrating the expressive vitality characteristic of Han ceramic horses at their finest. The underside exhibits four rectangular apertures for the legs, while the head has two round apertures for the ears and an additional aperture for the tail — reflecting the practical and sophisticated mold design of the period. At 18 inches in length, this is a substantial and commanding work.

Han Dynasty Horses & Their Significance

The horse occupied a position of extraordinary cultural, military, and symbolic importance in Han dynasty China. The Han emperors’ campaigns to secure the “heavenly horses” of Central Asia — larger and more powerful than the native Chinese breeds — were among the defining military and diplomatic enterprises of the dynasty, and the horse became one of the central symbols of imperial power, status, and ambition.

In the funerary arts of the Han period, pottery horses served as essential companions for the deceased in the afterlife — status emblems that proclaimed the wealth and rank of the tomb’s occupant and provided the means for a comfortable and well-appointed existence beyond death. Han ceramic horses are among the most iconic and sought-after works in the entire field of Chinese antiquities, and major examples are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The Billings Collection, assembled over decades by David and Beverly Hall Billings of Nantucket, Massachusetts, is widely regarded as one of the finest private collections of Asian art in the United States. Its publication in Passion and Pursuit (The Ming Press, 2022) provides this work with the kind of rigorous scholarly documentation that serious collectors and institutions prize above all else.

Artwork Details

Culture: Chinese, Han Dynasty
Period: Han Dynasty
Date: 206 BCE – 220 CE
Material: Painted grey pottery
Length: 18 in (45.7 cm)

Provenance & Publication

Property from the Collection of David and Beverly Hall Billings, Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Illustrated in: Hyland, R. M., Alice, Passion and Pursuit: The Billings Collection (Nantucket: The Ming Press, 2022), p. 21.

Condition

Overall consistent with age and archaeological terracotta; minor surface wear and expected losses appropriate to its age. Please review all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the description.