TANG DYNASTY

Details

A MASSIVE PAINTED BUFF POTTERY FIGURE OF A CAMEL AND MONKEY RIDER
Tang Dynasty
Naturalistically modeled with very long legs standing foursquare on a cut-out rectangular base, the head held high on its long neck, bearing an elaborate cargo of monster-mask saddle bags and twists of cloth suspended between its two humps, the pack boards loaded with supplies including game birds and a hare, joints of meat, pitchers of water and other provisions for a long journey, above it all the monkey is shown clinging to the fore hump, the saddle bags detailed in red, black and green pigment with simulated foliate embroidery, with traces of gilding
28¾in. (73cm.) high

Further details

See illustration and detail preceding pages

Lot Essay

It is very unusual to find a monkey perched on the top of a camel. A glazed pottery group of a similarly small monkey seated on a striding camel in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, no. 35. The inclusion of a monkey on the pack may be a whimsical notion, or may represent the trader's pet, or may represent part of the trade goods carried by the camels

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C97c95 is consistent with the dating of this lot