A pair of related camels was sold in these Rooms, 8 June 1987, lot 254. Such splendid hard-working (though irascible) camels formed the backbone of the enormous caravanserai business which brought the riches and luxuries of Central Asia and the Near East to the vast entrepots for foreign goods in China's Chang'an and Xian. See M. Medley, op. cit., for detailed accounts of this fabulous overland trade, skirting to the north and south of the desert expanses of the Taklamakan, the gleaming dry-salt marshes of Lopnor, and frequently stopping gratefully at the historical desert gateways to Northern China, the singing sands of Bezeklik and the rich Buddhist cave complex at Dunhuang