Pottery model of a standing horse. It was originally cold-painted in a whitish color. Remnants of the paint are still visible including a red color around the eyes. During the Han dynasty at about 100BC the Chinese emperor Wu Di heard about the tall, powerful and hardy Ferghana-horses owned by another state in the Ferghana Valley (present day Uzbekistan/Kyrgyzstan). When requests by him to buy such horses failed, Wu Di sent an army out to get them by force as he needed them for his wars against the Northern nomads, the Xiongnu. Only after a second attempt Wu Di managed to get his hands on a thousand of these ‘Heavenly Horses’ as they were known. ‘Heavenly Horses’ were said to have magical abilities as they sweat blood giving them the name ’Sweat Blood Horse’ (汗血馬). Nowadays it is believed that blood-sucking parasites caused sweat to mix with blood when the horses were worked but at the time this was considered as a heavenly characteristic. This pottery model is a depiction of one of those ‘Heavenly horses’. It has long legs, a powerful chest and a round barrel. It dates from the Han period (206BC – 220AD). Height 27.5 cm. Length 28.5 cm. Width 8.5 cm. THIS ITEM WAS SOLD AT AUCTION IN 2022.