A CHINESE PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A POLO PLAYER

Tang Dynasty

唐 彩繪馬球仕女陶俑

Modelled as a female polo player sat atop a horse standing foursquare on a rectangular base, her clothes and parts of the horse with pigment

33cm high

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NOTE:

The game of polo appears to have been introduced in China between the end of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and the early part of the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) from the Xianbei tribes who inhabited central Asia. Tang literary records refer to polo as played by two teams of three or four players, men and women alike, on horseback. The balls were made of wool and covered in leather, and the sticks had long handles and measured several feet long. Before each game, the tails of the horses were coiled and decorated with ornaments.

See a related figure of a female polo player on horseback, dated to the Tang Dynasty, sold at Bonhams London, 9 November 2017, lot 58. Also compare a similar figure from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, acc.no. EC29.1962.