Horse sculptures
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Glasgow Museums has a fine collection of figures of horses. In the Tang Dynasty (618-906), horses proved their worth carrying troops and supplies over vast distances within China and played a decisive role in the campaigns against hostile nomadic tribes outside the realm. Accordingly, their owners established close relationships and developed an attachment to their horses, the horses become part of their own life and more precious even than themselves. Modelling horses in clay was already an ancient tradition by Tang times. Horse sculptures were placed in burial tombs. Tang potters used relatively low-fired and light bodied. Tang pottery is usually composed of earthenware. Ranging in colour from nearly white to buff, red, or brown, depending on the mineral content, this earthenware was fired in kilns at a temperature between 600 and 1100 degrees Celsius.
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