Page 27 - Bonhams, Fine Chinese Art, London November 3, 2022

Image courtesy of the British Museum, London Bonhams, London, The Ollivier Collection, 8 November 2018, lot 28
© The Trustees of the British Museum
tax office outside Turfan (present-day Xinjiang), testifies to the fast pace Compare also with a large sancai camel, Tang dynasty, similarly
of trading activities during the Tang dynasty. Chang’an had two main modelled in mid-stride and with a saddle suspending mask-shaped
markets, referred to as the Eastern and the Western Market, both filled sacks over a pleated cushion, in the Asian Art Museum, San
with shops, eateries and tea houses, and additional trading centres Francisco, illustrated by W.Watson, The Arts of China to AD 900, Yale,
were established in the proximity of its main gates; see V.Hansen, The 1995, pp.231, fig.373. Another sancai camel, Tang dynasty, modelled
Silk Road: A New History, London, 2012. in a similar posture as the present one, is in the British Museum,
London (acc.no.1936.1012.228).
The animated attitude of this remarkable camel is reminiscent of
the running camels vividly depicted on the walls of Crown Prince A sancai glazed camel, Tang dynasty, depicted in a similar way to
Zhuanghuai’s tomb (d.684), excavated in Qianxian near Xi’an, Shaanxi the present one and carrying a similar array of goods, was sold at
Province, dated to AD 706, illustrated, in Out of China’s Earth: Bonhams London, 8 November 2018, lot 28; another example was
Archaeological Discoveries in People’s Republic of China, Beijing, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2016, lot 3305; a third
1981, pl.258. was sold at Christie’s New York, 20 September 2005, lot 191.