Circa 202 BC-220 AD An ornate Chinese Han dynasty pottery goose with bronze legs. The goose is standing on its stylised, well-defined bronze legs which support a globular body and elegantly slender neck terminating in a white-coloured head with a red beak and open, attentive eyes. The body is decorated with white and black glaze, imitating the animal's natural plumage. Geese were a major motif in Han dynasty era poetry and were typically distinguished between two types of geese, the domestic goose, and the wild goose. The Han Dynasty, which ruled between 202 BC-220 AD, brought great prosperity and stability to China, reigning over a golden age of classical Chinese civilization during which China saw major advances including the widespread development of a monetary economy and the invention of paper, as well as much progress in the decorative arts. To find out more about the Han Dynasty and its art production, see: Milleker, Elizabeth J. (ed.) (2000). The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. This piece has been precisely dated by means of a Thermo Luminescence analysis carried out by Ralf Kotalla, an independent German Laboratory. The samples collected date the piece to the period reflected in its style, whilst also showing no modern trace elements. The TL certificate with its full report will apany this lot. Size: L:200mm / W:185mm; 650g Provenance: UK private collection; formerly acquired in the early 1990s in Hong Kong.