Footnotes

明早期至中期 朱地剔黑封侯晉祿馬鞍


This rare saddle, with its highly decorative carved lacquer side panels and cantle, is rather unusual if not unique. The use of iron in the construction evokes Tibetan saddles that similarly used iron frames and pommels in their design suggesting that this saddle may have been made in Tibet or was strongly influenced by Tibetan saddles. Yet the use of carved lacquer in the decoration of the saddle tree and cantle is very much Chinese in origin and suggest that the saddle may have been made in Tibet or by Tibetan craftsmen in China working for Chinese patrons.

A saddle with such sumptuous decoration must have been made for a wealthy patron. While it had a very utilitarian function, this saddle was at the same time luxuriously decorated and served as a symbol of status and wealth. Stylistically, the lacquer décor and the construction of the saddle as well as the use of iron point to a manufacturing date in the early to mid-Ming dynasty. In this period, horses played an important role in daily life. Rife with warfare, the Ming government kept a formidable cavalry of horses but also used these as a commodity to exchange with the Mongols in the north of the empire. Horses were also an important commodity and provided a way for exchange between the Ming and the Mongol sides, thus meeting the practical needs of the exchange and interdependence of agriculture and nomadic economy and culture. Indigenous Chinese horses were generally inferior to their Central Asian and Arabian counterparts, superior mounts were regularly acquired from foreign sources. Contemporary records demonstrate that large-scale horse ranches were established along the northern border, and a significant portion of the population in the two metropolitan centers worked in the imperial stables. Fine horses symbolised military prowess and imperial authority. For this reason, powerful steeds were a popular subject at the early Ming court where court artists painted hunting parties, as well as peaceful scenes of horses grazing. Skillful horsemanship played a vital role in the military successes of the Manchu empire and was a key factor in the establishment of the Ming dynasty. Because of this, riding and the use of weapons on horseback for warfare or hunting became important aspects of Ming cultural identity.

The design of this saddle is robust and complies with the design of the few known Chinese saddles of earlier and later date such as seen in a saddle painted on the walls of a Liao dynasty tomb discovered in Datong, Shanxi, a rare tixi lacquer-decorated saddle dated to the Yuan dynasty, sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2086, and a carved cinnabar lacquer saddle of Qianlong date in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York (accession number L.2017.55.1a–f). It also has the same construction as saddles found in Tibet and Mongolia as examples also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, demonstrate (see, for instance, accession number 1999.118a–g). What distinguishes this saddle, however, is the use of the carved lacquer design on the front and end plates and the back of the cantle in combination with a high pommel entirely worked in iron. A precious material that was time-consuming to make and extremely fragile, here it was lavishly employed on the most visible parts of the saddle. Carved in a striking, two-colour design, the iconography is rare. Groups of finely rendered doe and stags idle in a dense, almost arcadian landscape. Long-limbed graceful monkeys clamber around and mingle with deer and small birds. Their long arms and tails identify them as gibbons, a species native to many parts of China before the end of the Ming dynasty, their habitat reaching from Gansu in the far northwest to Yunnan in the far southwest. A solitary, arboreal animal, living deep in forests amid the crowns of trees and never feeding on crops but gathering fruit high up in trees, they were considered charismatic and mysterious creatures. The lacquer design on this saddle is reminiscent of the same subject of gibbons and deer that appear in paintings of the Song to Ming dynasties, see, for instance, an album leaf by Yi Yuanji, (active in the late 11th century) National Palace Museum, Taipei (No. VA15f). But rarely if ever are they included in lacquer designs of the Ming dynasty. A scene of a stag and a gibbon closely related to the design on this saddle can be found on a small box similarly carved in black lacquer on red ground box, illustrated in M.-J. Ballot, Les Laques d'Extrême-Orient. Chine et Japon, Paris and Bruxelles, 1927, pl. 5. The image of a doe (lu) or stag and a gibbon (yuan) is a rebus or pictorial pun, that conveys a wish for success on an examination and a homophone for the expression 'the first [place gains] power'.

A stag and a doe are at the centre of the openwork front panel of the iron saddle pommel. It is made of relatively thick iron, finely chiselled and pierced, with densely arranged motifs, with layers of pierced scrollwork with long tendrils undercut to give an appearance of depth. The design is based on the carved lacquer design of the saddle plates, similarly depicting does and the stags against a background of flowering prunus branches and birds. The iconography is a popular one and appears in the decorative arts as early as the Five Dynasties, Liao and Jin. A crouching stag nestled amidst clusters of lotus-like flowers is the central motif on a pommel cover worked completely in gold sheet in repoussé, excavated from a Yuan dynasty tomb at Xianghuang Banner, Inner Mongolia, now in the collection of the Inner Mongolian Museum in Huhehaote, illustrated in Adam T. Kessler, Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heritage of Genghis Khan, Los Angeles, 1993, p. 155, fig. 101. However, while the iconography is Chinese, the material and the technique of this relatively thick, deeply chiselled and pierced iron front panel with densely arranged motifs with narrow gaps recall the workmanship of Tibetan artisans. Since at least the fifteenth century, artisans employed in metal-working workshops in the Derge kingdom in eastern Tibet, present-day Ganzi, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, perfected the techniques of working with different metals, most importantly iron, and produced the finest quality iron metalwork, among them finely made saddles with ornately decorated damascened iron parts. Although the iron pommel on this saddle is not damascened, the fine workmanship suggests the hands of a highly skilled Tibetan artisan. However, the luxurious carved lacquer decoration on the rest of the saddle and the iconography of the design reveal a strong Chinese influence and convey the great wealth, taste, and refinement of its original owner.