10. A green lead-glazed pottery model of a sheep pen

The pen is of simple circular form with an everted rim.  The interior is applied with five crisply moulded figures of standing mountain sheep, all facing in the same direction, their heads with pointed noses and small ears encircled by large curling horns.  The sheep and the inside and outside of the pen are covered with a bright apple-green glaze, with some traces of iridescence.  The underside of the base is unglazed, showing concentric circular wheel lines.

Provenance:
JJ Lally & Co, 1996
Priestley & Ferraro, 'Chinese Art', December 1996, no. 33
Priestley & Ferraro, 'Animals for the Afterlife’, November 2002, no.3

For another example of a sheep pen, though of a different shape, see Candace Lewis, ‘Into the Afterlife’, no. 12, p. 13.

Sheep and goats have been held in high esteem in China since the earliest times, as is shown by the appearance of the element yang, ‘sheep’, in several compound words of good meaning, like mei, ‘beautiful’, and xiang, ‘auspicious’.  The rams’ impressive heads with their characteristic curled horns found use as finials on ceremonial bronzes; and bronze rams modelled in a recumbent position, with a section of the back mounted on a swivelling hinge, were popular as lamps.

綠色釉陶羊圈

Dimensions: Diameter: 23.5 cm, 9 ¼ inches

Date: Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Price: SOLD