Page 117 - Bonhams Olivier Collection Early Chinese Art November 2018

were also imported in Tang China, as well as exotic musical 1. J.Rawson, ‘The Power of Images: the Model Universe of the First
genres, fashions and literary styles. In the arts, many foreign Emperor and its Legacy,’ Historical Research, 2002, vol.75, no.188,
shapes such as amphorae, bird-headed ewers and rhyton pp.123-54.
cups, and decorative motifs, such as hunting scenes, floral 2. V.Hansen, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary
medallions, garlands, swags, vines and Buddhist symbols, People Used Contracts, 600-1400, New Haven, 1995.
were imported from Central Asia and the Middle East . The 3. W.Burton, Sima Qian. Records of the Grand Historian, New York,
8
recent excavation of thirty-seven tax receipts, recording 1958.
approximately 600 payments, made in a year at a tax office 4. E.L.Johnston, ‘Auspicious Motifs in Ninth to Thirteenth-Century
outside Turfan (present-day Xinjiang), testifies to the fast pace Chinese Tombs’, Ars Orientalis, 2005, vol.33, no.2, pp.33-75; see
of trading activities during the Tang dynasty. Chang’an had also J.Rawson, ‘Creating Universes: Cultural Exchange as Seen
two main markets, referred to as the Eastern and the Western in Tombs in Northern China Between the Han and Tang Periods’,
Market, both filled with shops, eateries and tea houses, and Between Han and Tang. Cultural and Artistic Interactions in a
additional trading centres were established in the proximity Transformative Period, Beijing, 2001, pp.113-152.
of its main gates . 5. E.Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture, Stamford, 1977, vol. II,
9
p.220.
The animated attitude of this remarkable camel is reminiscent 6. E.R.Krauer, The Camel’s Load in Life & Death, Cambridge, 1998,
of the running camels vividly depicted on the walls of Crown pp.50-120.
Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb (d.684), excavated in Qianxian near 7. E.Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of Tang
Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, dated to AD 706, illustrated, in Out of Exotics, Berkeley, 1963, pp.7-40.
China’s Earth: Archaeological Discoveries in People’s Republic 8. B.Mater, De Gouden Eeuw van China: De Tang Dynastie (618-
of China, Beijing, 1981, pl.258. 907AD), Assen, 2011, pp.16-68.
9. V.Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History, London, 2012.
Compare also with a large sancai camel, Tang dynasty,
similarly modelled in mid-stride and with a saddle suspending
mask-shaped sacks over a pleated cushion, from the Asian Art
Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by W.Watson, The Arts of
China to AD 900, Yale, 1995, pp.231, fig.373. Another sancai
camel, Tang dynasty, modelled in a similar posture as the
present one, is included in the collection of the British Museum
(acc.no.1936.1012.228).

A sancai glazed camel, Tang dynasty, bearing different goods
on its pannier, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November
2016, lot 3305; another was sold in Christie’s New York, 20
September 2005, lot 191.

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