Page 26 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Image courtesy of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Vast riches poured into the Tang capital, Chang’an, from the Silk Road.
Merchants came from far afield to acquire silk, bamboo and lacquer
wares, and imported perfumes, horse and jewels; see E.Schafer, The
Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of Tang Exotics, Berkeley,
1963, pp.7-40. Different types of food, spices, and wines were also
imported into Tang China, as well as exotic musical genres, fashions
and literary styles. In the arts, many foreign shapes such as amphorae,
bird-headed ewers and rython cups, and decorative motifs, such
as hunting scenes, floral medallions, garlands, swags, vines and
Buddhist symbols, were imported from Central Asia and the Middle
East; B.Mater, De Gouden Eeuw Van China: De Tang Dynastie (618-
907AD), Assen, 2011, pp.16-68. The excavation of thirty-seven tax
receipts, recording approximately 600 payments, made in a year at a