B oldly sculpted with simple stylized contours that convey innate power, this jade horse head exemplifies the thriving artistic tradition of equine representations during China’s early imperial history. Throughout China’s long history, the horse has played a significant role in the expansion and consolidation of the empire, as well as a means by which to maintain contact and control across such a vast and diverse terrain. The Han dynasty was repeatedly threatened with attempts by the Xiongnu, the multi-ethnic nomadic group inhabiting the Eurasian Steppe, to raid the northern and eastern boundaries of China’s territories. This led to a search for horses that were superior to China’s own domestic breeds, and better suited to the challenging topographies of the regions. During the reign of the Wudi Emperor (141 to 87 BC), the discovery of the fabled ‘celestial’ or ‘blood-sweating’ warhorses from the lands of Ferghana (modern-day Turkmenistan) was made by an envoy to the court. These powerful steeds were not only of greater stature to those from China, but were also known for their speed, power and stamina. Significant diplomatic and, eventually, military resources were allocated to secure these breeds, and it is reputed that in 101 BC fifty such horses reached the capital.

It is against this backdrop that a thriving artistic tradition of equine sculpture began to emerge, with craftsmen capturing the vigor and power of the steed, typically conveyed through depictions of bulging eyes, flaring nostrils, muscular jowls below sharply pronounced cheek bones, and an open square jaw framed by snarled lips to expose the teeth.

Mirroring the military significance of the arrival of these horses into China, sculptures of horses or horses and riders began to appear frequently amongst the most prominent tomb goods. The largest quantity of extant examples of Han dynasty horse sculpture are preserved in ceramic. Compare two pairs of painted pottery horse and rider models which demonstrate similar physical representations to the Junkunc horse head. The first pair, excavated in 1965 near the Western Han dynasty tombs of Yangjiawan, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, now in the Xianyang Museum, was included in the exhibition Imperial China. The Arts of the Horse in Chinese History, Kentucky Horse Park and International Museum of the Horse, Kentucky, 2000, cat. no. 121; the second pair are illustrated in Martha Blackwelder and John E. Vollmer, At the Edge of the Sky. Asian Art in the Collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, 2006, pl. 4. A painted pottery head of a horse, without its neck, was included in the exhibition Relics of Ancient China from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer, Asia House Gallery, 1965, cat. no. 133, and another, with its neck, was gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, by Samuel T. Peters in 1926 (acc. no. 26.292.45)

Far more ambitious than the pottery sculptures were those cast in bronze. One of the most iconic Han dynasty representations is the monumental (76 cm high) gilt-bronze standing horse unearthed in 1981 from a tomb east of the Maoling Mausoleum of Emperor Wudi, extensively published and most recently included in the exhibition Everlasting like the Heavens. The Cultures and Arts of the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang, Tsinghua University Art Museum, 2019, pl. 307; as well as the famous Eastern Han dynasty ‘galloping horse’, excavated from a tomb in Wuwei, Gansu Province in 1969, illustrated in Xiaoneng Yang (ed.), New Perspectives on China’s Past. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century, Yale, 2004, pl. 90, together with several standing bronze horses, some pulling chariots and others with riders atop, see Gan Bowen, 'Gansu Wuwei Leitai Donghanmu qingli jianbao [Brief report on the excavation of a Eastern Han tomb at Leitai, Wuwei, Gansu province], Wenwu, no. 2, Beijing, 1972, pls 5-7. Compare also an Eastern Han pair of bronze horses standing over 112 cm tall excavated in Hebei in 1981, illustrated in A Selection of the Treasures of Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China, 1976-1984, Beijing, 1987, pl. 348; and another slightly larger standing example (measuring 116 cm), from the Hebei Provincial Museum, included in the exhibition Pegasus and the Heavenly Horses: Thundering Hoofs on the Silk Road, Nara National Museum, Nara, 2008, cat. no. 92. Given the perishable material, it is not surprising that only a very small number of examples preserved in wood are known. See, however, a standing horse and chariot, also excavated from a Han tomb in Wuwei, illustrated in Gansu Provincial Museum, 'Wuwei Mozuizi sanzuo Hanmu fajue jianbao [Brief report on the excavation of three Han tombs at Mozuizi, Wuwei]', Wenwu, no. 12, Beijing, 1972, pl. 4, no. 1.

Representations in jade are rare, commensurate with the scarcity and material cost of the stone. Of the complete jade horses known, most suggest a more mythical representation of a ‘heavenly horse’, for example compare two winged jade horses in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pls 196-7.

The existence of jade horse heads and necks (without bodies) is confirmed by an earlier example excavated in 1986 from the circa 537 BC Spring and Autumn Period tomb of Duke Qin, Fenxiang, Shaanxi Province, today housed in the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi’an. Measuring just 5.3 cm in length and minimally carved from a polished black jade, it is drilled through a tab running along the lower neck with apertures for attachment, see Everlasting like the Heavens. The Cultures and Arts of the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang, Tsinghua University Art Museum, 2019, pl. 225. The most famous Han dynasty example in jade is unquestionably the iconic and somewhat controversial jade horse head and chest in the Victoria and Albert Museum, acquired from the collection of George Eumorfopoulos in 1935, extensively published including in Rose Kerr (ed.), Chinese Art and Design. The T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art, London, 1991, pl. 44. Other examples traditionally attributed to the Han dynasty include: one formerly in the collection of Oscar Raphael, included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 530; one from the Somerset de Chair Collection, illustrated in Geoffrey Wills, Jade of the East, New York, 1972, pl. 48; one also from the Junkunc Collection, illustrated alongside the present lot in Alfred Salmony, Chinese Jades Through the Wei Dynasty, New York, 1963, pl. XXXII-4; its mate in the Okura Collection, Tokyo, illustrated in Sueji Umehara, Selected Specimens of Chinese Archaic Jade, Kyoto, 1955, pl. LXVIII; and another in the Harvard Art Museums, illustrated in Hugo Munsterberg, Art of the Far East, New York, 1968, pl. 36. A larger white stone example (25 cm long) was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 131.

The recent publication of a pair of larger (13 cm and 18 cm long) green jade horse heads without necks from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, now in the Harvard Art Museums, have reinvigorated the debate concerning jade horse heads attributed to this period. Collected in the early 20th century (the larger from Yamanaka & Co. in 1934 and the smaller known to have entered the collection no later than 1938, when it was published in Alfred Salmony, Carved Jade of Ancient China, Berkeley, 1938, pl. LXVII), both Winthrop heads have oval drillings to the base filled with remnants of wood, iron and steel rods. These unusual trace materials led to their revised ‘Han to Tang period (?)’ attribution when recently published in Jenny F. So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Harvard, 2019, pls 43A-B, where the author also casts doubt over the Han dynasty attribution of this group.

Whilst the stylistic details of the Junkunc horse compare extremely closely to its excavated counterparts in pottery, bronze and wood, the absence of another jade horse head discovered from a Han dynasty tomb presents the possibility that these may have been produced in the centuries following the Han dynasty.

本品玉馬首，神形兼備，樸拙自然，線條遒勁有力，刀韻之中古意磅礴，可見中國古代馬文化藝術之精髓。在中國悠久的歷史當中，馬作為載具，地位尤其重要，開疆擴土、鞏固山河、信息傳播，皆見其用。漢代中國東北部邊境常受匈奴侵擾，朝廷大力尋找異域良馬，以利戰事。漢武帝時，大宛國汗血寶馬隨貢入漢，武帝見後奉其為天馬。汗血馬屬山地馬種，據傳可日行千里，速度、力量均勝於中國本地馬種，故武帝不惜餘力，通過外交以及戰爭手段，據載最終於太初四年將此馬種引入國都。

在如此大環境下，馬作為造像藝術題材亦開始大量湧現。此時期馬造像的特點突出，匠者著意刻畫馬的力量及剛進，形象多為鼓眼，闊鼻，腱顎，豐唇，常作露齒嘶鳴狀。

馬俑及騎馬俑開始作為貴重隨葬品被放置在墓葬之中。目前可見大量漢代陶馬俑存世。參考兩陶加彩騎馬俑例，形象風格與本品馬首相近。其一於1965年出土自陝西咸陽楊家灣，現藏咸陽博物館，曾展《帝王時代中國馬》，肯塔基馬園及國際馬博物館，肯塔基，2000年，編號121；其二載 Martha Blackwelder 及 John E. Vollmer，《At the Edge of the Sky. Asian Art in the Collection of the San Antonio Museum of Art》，聖安東尼奧，2006年，圖版4。另見一陶加彩馬首例，無頸，展《Relics of Ancient China from the Collection of Dr. Paul Singer》，Asia House Gallery，1965年，編號133；亦見一例，有頸，1926年由 Samuel T. Peters 贈予紐約大都會藝術博物館（館藏編號26.292.45）。

除此外，亦可見漢代青銅馬例。與陶馬相比，青銅馬製作難度更大。可見一頗具代表性的漢代青銅馬，通體鎏金，尺寸碩大（高76公分），1981年興平市豆馬村漢武帝茂陵東側1號無名冢1號從葬坑出土，經大量出版，最近一次展於《與天久長•周秦漢唐文化與藝術》，清華大學藝術博物館，北京，2019年，圖版307。另見著名的東漢銅奔馬，作腳踏飛燕狀，1969年甘肅武威雷台東漢墓出土，載楊曉能編，《New Perspective's on China's Past. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century》，耶魯，2004年，圖版90，同墓另出土一組青銅馬，部分連戰車，部分載騎者，見甘博文，〈甘肅武威雷台東漢墓清理簡報〉，《文物》，期2，北京，1972年，圖版五至七。另見一對東漢青銅馬例（高逾112公分），1981年河北出土，錄《全國出土文物珍品選》，北京，1987年，圖版348；亦見一略大例（116公分），藏河北省博物館，展《特別展天馬：シルクロードを翔ける夢の馬》，奈良國立博物館，奈良，2008年，編號92。再可見漢代木製馬造像，木易腐，故存世例稀少，可參考一馬連軺車例，武威磨咀子漢墓出土，載甘肅省博物館，〈武威磨咀子三座漢墓發掘簡報〉，《文物》，期12，北京，1972年，圖版4，編號1。

相比之下，漢代玉馬尤為罕見，應因其材質稀少、造價高昂之故。目前已知存世玉馬，多為帶翼天馬形象，如見兩例，清宮舊藏，載《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集•玉器（上）》，香港，1995年，圖版196及197。

相類玉馬首之先例可見一1986年鳳翔縣秦公一號墓之所出，為春秋時期，長5.3公分，玉色灰黑，刀工簡練，頸下作小孔，展《與天久長•周秦漢唐文化與藝術》，清華大學藝術博物館，北京，2019年，圖版225。漢例中最為著名且具爭議性之例當為倫敦維多利亞與阿爾伯特博物館所藏之玉馬首連半胸例，由館方於1935年購自 George Eumorfopoulos 收藏，經大量出版，包括 Rose Kerr 編，《Chinese Art and Design. The T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art》，倫敦，1991年，圖版44。另可參考其它斷代漢代之玉馬首作例，包括一例出自 Oscar Raphael 收藏，展《中國藝術國際展覽會》，皇家藝術學院，倫敦，1935年，編號530；一例出自 Somerset de Chair 收藏，載 Geoffrey Wills，《Jade of the East》，紐約，1972年，圖版48；一例亦出自瓊肯收藏，與本品同錄於 Alfred Salmony，《Chinese Jades Through the Wei Dynasty》，紐約，1963年，圖版XXXII-4；另一例出自大倉收藏，刊梅原末治，《支那古玉圖錄》，京都，1955年，圖版LXVIII；再見一例，藏哈佛藝術博物館，載 Hugo Munsterberg，《Art of the Far East》，紐約，1968年，圖版36。另見一較大白色石雕例（長25公分），展《中國藝術展》，柏林，1929年，編號131。近時另見一對青玉無頸馬首例出版，同時並引起了對於此時期玉馬首斷代的更多討論。該對青玉馬首尺寸略大（分別長13及18公分），出自 Grenville L. Winthrop 收藏，現藏哈佛藝術博物館，其中較大者於1934年出自山中商會，較小者已知最晚於1938年進入 Winthrop 收藏，並曾載於 Alfred Salmony，《Carved Jade of Ancient China》，伯克利，1938年，圖版LXVII。此對馬首底部均見橢圓形鑽孔，並見木及金屬插桿殘留。去年出版時斷代定為「漢至唐（？）」，見蘇芳淑，《Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums》，哈佛，2019年，圖版43A及43B，作者於書中提出對其斷代之疑問及討論。

本品玉馬首雖與目前已知出土的相類漢代陶、青銅及木馬的馬首風格極近，但目前尚未見到相類漢代玉馬首的出土實例，故此亦不排除此類玉馬首製作年代晚於漢代之可能。