AN EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE PAINTED POTTERY FIGURE OF A BACTRIAN CAMEL AND A SOGDIAN RIDER, TANG DYNASTY

Expert’s note:
The present lot is extremely rare for its exceptional size of 104 cm, with exceedingly few other examples of comparable height recorded in private or public collections.

China, 618-907. Powerfully modeled, the large camel with its head turned to the left, the animal with a wild expression marked by protruding eyes, flaring nostrils, and the wide-open mouth with the tongue extended. The Sogdian rider wearing a fur coat and tall cap, his right arm raised to goad the camel, his mustachioed face with a stern expression as he sits on several rolled mats beneath the red saddle blanket with a dog propping himself up on his leg. The camel further ladened with a saddle bag and two flasks, as well as the yield of a hunt, a slain wild goat, tied to the saddle.


Provenance:
From a noted private collection in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Condition:
Some restorations and touch-ups as generally expected from Tang dynasty excavations. Losses, fissures, and encrustations. Drilled holes from sample-taking. Overall, very good condition and displaying magnificently.

Scientific Analysis Report:
A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by QED Laboratoire, Reference QED1346/FC-0101, dated 20 November 2013, sets the firing date of two samples as consistent with the suggested period of manufacture in Tang dynasty. A copy of the report accompanies this lot.

Weight: 35.2 kg
Dimensions: Height 104 cm


The rider with fur coat and peaked hat represents a Sogdian merchant
. A similar hat is worn by a small Tang bronze figure of a Sogdian dancer, included in the exhibition Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from the Northwest China, Asia Society Museum, New York, 2001-2, and at present on view in the Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Florida, which is discussed and illustrated in the catalog, no. 82. Compare also a standing pottery figure of a similarly attired foreigner, excavated from a tomb of AD 724, illustrated in Treasures of a Nation, Beijing, 1999, pp. 216f, and a camel drover with a pointed hat, depicted together with his animal on a brick from one of the Dunhuang caves in Gansu province, included in The Exhibition of Ancient Art Treasures of the People's Republic of China, Tokyo National Museum, 1979, cat. no. 75.


The highly animated depiction of the camel
is reminiscent of the running camels from the hunting scenes painted on the walls of Crown Prince Zhuang Huai's tomb in Qianxian near Xi'an, Shaanxi province. The two-humped Bactrian camel was an exotic beast known in China from the Han dynasty, when it was first introduced as a form of tribute offered by the tribes of Turkestan and Central Asia. Prized for their ability to survive extreme hardships of heat, cold, and lack of water when travelling across the desert, camels came to symbolize the freely-flowing trade established along the Silk Road and thus the wealth and cosmopolitan nature of the Tang Court.


Literature comparison:

A related large painted pottery group of a camel and foreign rider, dressed in a fur coat and wearing a large pointed hat, excavated from the tomb of Wang Chen (buried 679), Chengzhi, Shaanxi province in 1954 and now in the Museum of Chinese History, Beijing, is illustrated by Li Jian (ed.), The Glory of the Silk Road, Art from Ancient China, The Dayton Art Institute, 2003, p. 170, pl. 85.


Auction result comparison:

Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 15 September 2015, lot 258
Estimate: USD 180,000 or approx.
EUR 210,000
converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A magnificent painted pottery camel with Sogdian rider and hunting owl, early Tang dynasty
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling with a similarly animated camel and Sogdian rider, who however is holding a hunting owl in his hand. Note the related size (99.1 cm).




唐代彩繪胡人騎駱駝陶俑


中國，618-907年。駱駝背上的胡人深目、高鼻、絡腮鬍，頭戴氈帽，身穿翻領棉毛襖，袒胸露乳，雙袖捲起，雙手持韁繩狀，腳踏氈鞋。胡人與駱駝同時向右邊轉望。駱駝體型高大、粗壯，張嘴作嘶鳴狀，四肢挺拔剛健，闊步向前。胡人坐在紅色鞍毯上，毯下幾張卷墊，可能是貨物。腿上坐著一只狗。 駱駝還馱著一個馬鞍袋和兩個水瓶，還有狩獵的收穫，一隻被殺死的野山羊，綁在馬鞍上。


來源：
法國普羅旺斯地區艾克斯知名私人收藏。

品相：
一些小修，缺損、裂縫和結殼，取樣鑽孔，狀況良好。

科學鑒定報告
:
QED實驗室於2013年年11月20日出具的熱釋光分析報告（編號QED1346/FC-0101）顯示，兩個樣品的燒製日期與建議的唐代製造時期一致。 隨附一份報告副本。

重量：35.2 公斤
尺寸：高 104 厘米


身穿毛皮大衣、頭戴尖頂帽的騎手是一個粟特商人
。唐代粟特舞者青銅小雕像也戴著類似的帽子，展覽《Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures》，亞洲協會博物館，紐約，2001年-2，目前在紐約的亞洲協會博物館展出，諾頓藝術博物館，佛羅里達州棕櫚灘，在目錄中進行了討論和說明，編號 82. 還可以比較從西元724 年的一座墓中出土的一個穿著類似的外國人的立陶人像，《Treasures of a Nation》中有插圖，北京，1999年 年，第216f 頁；以及一個戴著尖頂帽子的駱駝販子，甘肅省敦煌石窟磚上的動物，收錄於《中國古代藝術珍品展》，東京國立博物館，1979年，編號1979，No 75。


對駱駝的生動描繪
，讓人想起陝西省西安市干縣莊懷太子墓牆上描繪的駱駝狩獵場景。雙峰雙峰駝是一種自漢代起就在中國廣為人知的動物，當時它作為突厥斯坦和中亞部落的貢品引入中國。駱駝在穿越沙漠時能夠經受住酷熱、嚴寒和缺水的極端艱苦考驗，逐漸成為絲綢之路沿線自由貿易的象徵，也像徵著唐朝的財富和國際化。


文獻比較:

一件相近的彩繪胡人騎駱駝陶俑 ，1954年出土於陝西墓葬，現藏於北京國家博物館。見Li Jian編，《The Glory of the Silk Road，Art from Ancient China》，The Dayton Art Institute，2003年，頁170，圖85。


拍賣比較：

形制：非常相近
拍賣：紐約蘇富比，2015年9月15日，lot 258
估價：USD 180,000（相當今日
EUR 210,000
）
描述：唐早期陶加彩駱駝胡人俑
專家註釋：比較非常相近的造型類似的駱駝和粟特騎手，但手裡拿著一隻狩獵貓頭鷹。請注意相近尺寸 (99.1 厘米)。