Page 175 - Bonham's Asian Art London November 2015

415

415 The present lot is part of an interesting group of textiles unearthed in
A SILK DAMASK CAFTAN FRAGMENT burial sites in and around the location of Moshchevaja Balka in the
Tang Dynasty, 8th-9th century North Caucasus, between the Caspian and Black Sea (Kajitani, N.
The fragments with a repetitive pattern of double-vajras within and A Man’s Caftan and leggings from the North Caucasus of the Eighth
without elaborate roundels, stitch-mounted onto a conservation to Tenth Century: A Conservator’s Report, Metropolitan Museum
backing cloth. Journal, New York, vol. 36 (2001), p. 85). At this site, the intermittent
146cm (57 1/2) high excavations, both official and unofficial, which took place there
throughout the 20th century, have yielded a group of silk fragments
£4,000 - 6,000 of surprising variety in terms of country of origin as well as value (P.O.
CNY39,000 - 58,000 Harper, A Man’s Caftan and Leggings from the North Caucasus pf
HK$47,000 - 71,000 the Eighth to Tenth Century: An Introduction; Metropolitan Museum
Journal, New York, vol. 36 (2001), p.83). Despite the fact that the site
Provenance was located near trade routes between Southern Russia and West and
Nagel, Stuttgart, 7 May 1994, lot 18. Central Asia, its location is considered somewhat remote by scholars
(E. R. Knauer, A Man’s Caftan and leggings from the North Caucasus
Illustrated of the Eighth to Tenth Century: A Genealogical Study, Metropolitan
Kajitani, N. A Man’s Caftan and leggings from the North Caucasus Museum Journal, New York, vol. 36 (2001), p. 130).
of the Eighth to Tenth Century: A Conservator’s Report, Metropolitan The rarity of textiles finds in burial sites in the area, due to weather
Museum Journal, New York, vol. 36 (2001), fig. 19-20. conditions, as well as the unusual variety of high-quality silks found
at burial sites in this area make this group particularly significant to
scholars of the area (P.O. Harper, ibid. p.83). Textiles of this group are
now mostly in the collection of the State Hermitage and other museums
in Russia, whilst a caftan and a pair of leggings thought to be part of
the same group are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Fund (Museum no. 1996.78.1).

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