AN ORDOS BRONZE ‘RECLINING FOAL’ PLAQUE, WARRING STATES China, Inner Mongolia, Ordos, 5th-3rd century BC. Cast as a reclining foal, with the front and hind legs tucked under the body, the head turned backwards, the reverse set with a loop for attachment.

Provenance: Grays Antique Center, London, 1999. Dr. Koos de Jong, acquired from the above (invoice no longer available). Dr. de Jong is a Dutch art historian and has been privately collecting Chinese art over decades. He has authored hundreds of articles and several books on Dutch fine and decorative arts spanning from the Middle Ages to the modern era. In 2013, he published an extensive study of Chinese riding gear in “Dragon & Horse, Saddle Rugs and Other Horse Tack from China and Beyond”. Between 1976 and 2009 he worked for numerous museums across the Netherlands and was the director of the European Ceramic Work Center in Den Bosch.
Condition: Good, original condition, remarkable considering the age of this plaque! Some wear, minuscule nicks, and scratches. Some malachite-green encrustations in the recesses. Originally with inlays, which are missing.

Weight: 2.35 g
Dimensions: Length 1.2 cm
Literature comparison: Similar plaques cast in bronze were found in a number of Ordos tombs in Hebei province and Inner Mongolia, also illustrated in E.C. Bunker, Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York 1997, no. 80, p. 170.