Featured Tang Sancai

These were a nice surprise when I got home and did some due diligence.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I have a better chance of hitting the lotto
But like they say... if you dont play, you can’t win.

Anyway, I followed gotheborg.com test and they past all with flying colors, woot woot.

http://gotheborg.com/qa/tang.shtml

But I still am going to get them professionally checked..... that is of course unless someone’s here can shoot’em down quicker and save me a bunch. Hehehe

 

woo, @mmarco102

These are on a whole 'nother level - that blue glaze!

 

Truly beautiful horses, but I doubt very much they are genuine Tang dynasty. @Asian Fever has probably been to the factory where Tang style horses are made, and may recognize yours.

That stunning blue is beautiful, but it doesn't look right either. Here is a Tang dynasty blue horse (I hope):

https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/horse-19383

Recently made Tang-style horses sell well, they are always beautiful, whatever the age. For real Tang dynasty horses you can add a couple of zeros to the value of course.

 

i'm just learn recently about chinese kind of glaze,and i think yours are reproduction or old reproduction from the way they paint it.

 

Welcome to the forum, Silver Wolf.
Interesting information, it is good to have someone on board who knows historical Chinese glazes.

 

here's the good example of real ming and fake "old ming,the real one is around 16th century of ming dynasty but the reproduction one is from qing dynasty of 19th century,tang is way more older than ming so i think @Any Jewelry was right,the blue doesn't look right,but it's still beautiful decoration tough

 

Yes, the glaze is different, the colour, but also the sheen. And the detail on the antique ones is amazing.
I took the liberty of making the image you posted full view.

 

sorry i forgot to name it,the real one is MFA boston property,thanks

 

Yes of coures, I am and been very aware, and as always, love your direct honesty, you are a doll and a half

Still I am holding out for a long shot, and I mean A LOOOOONG SHOT.
When we first brought them home,they looked much older, and without me knowing my girl took them into the kitchen for a scrubbing(YIKES!). She called me in and said she tried and tried but couldnt get all the white powerdry stuff off. I replied “than don’t try” . After her cleaning they did look newer but stank awful. Thats when I googled and found Tang horses. Here are a few not as beautiful as your horse and you.



and here are some blue ones that look glassy and shiny new. Even ones that are in my horse style(imitation can be the finest form of flattery), but less detail.

This all said, I still believe in my heart that they are not Tang, just everything at gotheborg.com suggested a strong possibility. Maybe not buried in the tombs with the kings as these are just over 8 inches tall. Didn’t pay much as the lady in charge couldn't find any markings(haha) so it’s all in fun.


Most museum curators have probably seen a blue Tang horse once in their entire life. That says a lot about mines

 

Hello and welcome to this amazing and enjoyable forum S.Wolf.

I appreciate your comments very much, thank you.

 

Best to get them tested, as you planned.

Maybe just a little Tang.

 

Oh that’s rich

 

oh about the blue,i'm believed that your horse's blue more look like cobalt blue,cobalt blue was starting to use in 19th century in Qing period,and the dynasties before qing,including the tang using a more soft and dark blue called "fahua glaze"

but,give it a shot,take to a real appraiser,good luck!

 

Yes, I fully understand I have a better chance of getting hit by lightning , but according to this, colbalt blue was used???

 

Hi,
back in the 1970s someone was selling pure white "Tang" horses. I painted them with three colors and some looked fine others ugh. I sold five or six of them for a nice price(about 100 dollars each.) I am sure one or two of them are in someones prized possessions. The one I really thought looked wonderful got broken in my last move. I never realized that I was faking antiques just they looked better in color instead of white.
greg

 

Hey greg, were they painted in the three basic colors or to your artistic preference? Glazed? Just pondering ....

 

The Chinese imported cobalt from the famous cobalt mines of Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Whenever China closed its borders, as happened several times in history, they had to resort to other sources for their blue, and glazes were more muted. Whenever trade between China and the Indonesian archipelago was shut down for another reason, like war or shutdown of diplomatic relations, the same thing happened.

 

i thought it was middle eastern who introducing cobalt blue to chinese,persian to be exactly,

 

Persian traders introduced the use of cobalt blue in China, and the first cobalt came from Iran. Because of many wars along the Silk Road the Chinese turned to Kalimantan, where they also got their manganese if memory serves me. Here is something I wrote about the Persia-China white-blue connection last year:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/another-is-this-delfts-thread.22200/#post-299103

 

hmm this is new to me,but if Kalimantan have cobalt mines,why there's almost no pottery with blue tone in kalimantan?mostly they produce are brown earthenware colour like martaban jar