Tile: C.2-1968

Current Location: Gallery 28 - Arts of Asia Gallery

Maker(s)

Entities

Tile

Description

Unglazed grey earthenware tomb tile, which originally faced the interior or a Han brick tomb. With impressed and incised designs of a winged horse and a tree in which a bird perches. Above the horse, another slightly different winged creature hovers. The tile still has traces of red, white and light yellow paint, and also in the upper left hand corner of the tree a wooden stamp impression remains.

According to William White, a lute made from the wood of the Wu t'ung tree would cure the sick, quiet the restles spirit, and draw the fairies and phoenixes to the music. Down through the ages coffins made of its wood ensured peace of the departed spirit. The bird in the tree is perhaps a phoenix, for this bird of good omen would only rest in the Wu t'ung tree.

Notes

History note: Probably from the area of Qincun, Loyang in Henan.

Legal notes

Bequeathed by Mrs Walter Sedgwick through National Art Collections Fund

Measurements and weight

Height: 40.6 cm
Length: 44.4 cm

Relative size of this object

What does this represent?

Relative size of this object is displayed using code inspired by Good Form and Spectacle's work on the British Museum's Waddeson Bequest website and their dimension drawer. They chose a tennis ball to represent a universally sized object, from which you could envisage the size of an object.