TANG DYNASTY (AD 618-907)

This massive and exceptionally handsome camel is a particularly fine example of the type of figure that was made to go in the tombs of the Tang elite in the first 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 difficult 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, one example is the figure from Luoyang, Henan, illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 155, no. 534. The two figures 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 figure of a striding camel of comparable size to the present lot in the Asian Art Museum, 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 figure, in the British Museum, which has a reversal of the coloration of the present and the aforementioned figures from Luoyang, with the coat glazed cream and the hair glazed amber-brown, is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1976, p. 148, no. 136.

The result of Oxford thermoluminescence test no. PH 993⁄353 is consistent with the dating of this lot.