Page 14 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

PROPERTY FROM THE HALL IN MEMORY OF CYPRESS (JIBO TANG)
704
A MAGNIFICENT SANCAI-GLAZED POTTERY FIGURE OF A BACTRIAN CAMEL
AND A FOREIGN GROOM
TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)
The amber-glazed camel is naturalistically shown striding, with the mane, tail, and two humps highlighted
in cream glaze. The head arches strongly upwards with the mouth agape revealing long pointed teeth and
the tongue. The camel’s back is laden with a bulging sack molded on either side with a large monster mask
and various provisions including a ewer, all set on top of projecting pack boards and a ftted cream cloth
scored with a diamond pattern and with a green tufted fur border. The foreign groom stands on a square
plinth, his body slightly turned and his hands positioned to hold a rope. He wears a three-quarter-length
coat with green lapels and his short, black-painted hair is bound with a leather strap.
Camel 33 in. (83.8 cm.) high; groom 24º in. (61.6 cm.) high
$300,000-400,000

PROVENANCE
Acquired in Hong Kong, 1999.
This massive and exceptionally handsome camel is a particularly fne example of the type of fgure
that was made to go in the tombs of the Tang elite in the frst half of the 8th century. Such models,
which would have been very expensive to purchase, provided an obvious indication of the wealth of
a family. Not surprisingly, camels have been found among the burial items in a number of the Tang
imperial tombs, as well as some of those belonging to other members of the Tang nobility. However,
these models were not simply symbols of wealth, they were also symbols of the way that wealth might
have been acquired through trade and tribute along the Silk Route. In the Tang dynasty, camels really
did live up to the description of them as ‘ships of the desert’ and were used to transport Chinese
goods, including silk across the dificult terrain of the Silk Route to the eager markets of Central Asia,
Samarkand, Persia, and Syria. They may also be seen as symbolic of the cosmopolitanism of the Tang
capital at Chang’an. They carried, on their return journeys, many of the exotic luxuries from the west that
were desired by the sophisticated Tang court.
The two-humped Bactrian camel was known in China as early as the Han dynasty, having been brought
from central Asia and Eastern Turkestan as tribute. Its amazing ability to survive the hardships of travel
across the Asian deserts was soon recognized and Imperial camel herds were established under the
administration of a special bureau. Camels were not only prized as resilient beasts of burden, their hair
was also used to produce a cloth which was admired for its lightness and warmth.
Of the known examples of camels of this size and type, the one closest is the fgure from Luoyang,
Henan, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 155, no. 534. The two
fgures share the same massive size, striding pose, exceptionally well modeled head with the mouth
open in a bray, realistic depiction of the hair on the head, neck, haunches and humps, and coloration. The
depiction of the packs on the two are also quite similar including the inclusion of a cream-glazed ewer.
A similar ewer can also be seen on the similarly glazed fgure of a striding camel of comparable size in
the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, which is shown with a groom, illustrated by W. Watson, The
Arts of China to AD 900, New Haven/London, 1995, p. 233, no. 37. Another similar fgure, in the British
Museum, which has a reversal of the coloration of the present fgure and the aforementioned fgures
from Luoyang, with the coat glazed cream and the hair glazed amber-brown hair, is illustrated in Sekai
toji zenshu, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1976, p. 148, no. 136. This latter fgure is very similar to one sold at Christie’s
New York, 20 September 2005, lot 191. However, the present camel difers from the comparable fgures
in the depiction of the ftted blanket. While the blankets of the other camels have the more usual pleated
border and multi-colored decoration, the blanket of the present fgure is scored with a diamond pattern
under a plain cream glaze, while the border is depicted as tufts of fur and glazed green.
The fgure of the foreign groom that accompanies the camel is very similar in all respects to a fgure
illustrated by E. Schloss, Ancient Chinese Ceramic Sculpture from Han through T’ang, Stamford, 1977,
vol. I, pl. 103 and vol. II, p. 223, pl. 103, where the author describes the groom as “representative of a
Turkic tribe” from Western Turkestan in Central Asia. Grooms of this type would have been paired with
either a camel or horse.
The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. PH 993/353 is consistent with the dating of this lot.
唐 三彩胡人牽駱駝俑

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