NORTHWEST CHINA, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

Details

TWO UNUSUAL BRONZE 'CAMEL' FITTINGS
NORTHWEST CHINA, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC
One of tinned bronze is possibly a harness ornament and hollow-cast as a figure of a seated Bactrian camel shown with its legs folded under the body on top of four struts rising from a rectangular frame. The other is a harness ornament cast as the head of a camel, with a square cage-like strap-crossing device projecting from the concave reverse.
2 ½ and 2 5/8 in. (6.3 and 6.7 cm.) wide, one box

Provenance

Camel-form fitting: The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida, by 1995.
Camel's-head harness ornament: acquired in Hong Kong, 1991.
Both: The Erwin Harris Collection, Miami, Florida.

Lot Essay

The camel's head harness ornament is similar to a tinned example illustrated by E. C. Bunker et al., Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, p. 50, no. 14, which is ascribed to Northwest China and dated 4th-3rd century BC.

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