The slender animal is depicted carrying two baskets on either side of the body. The figure delicately rendered with a slightly thrown back, small head and a half-open mouth and dilated nostrils, suggesting the animal is chewing his food. The pottery with traces of white pigment.
A pottery Bactrian camel ( Northern Wei dynasty, early 6th century)
Description
Dimensions: 24.5cm high, 23.5cm wide
Provenance:
Gisèle Croës Oriental Art, Brussels, 9 May 1985 (invoice)
A private Belgian collection
Exhibited:
Antiekbeurs Brussels, 1985
The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd thermoluminescence test no. 366j32 is consistent with the dating of this pieee.
The slender animal is depicted carrying two baskets on either side of the body. The figure delicately rendered with a slightly thrown back, small head and a half-open mouth and dilated nostrils, suggesting the animal is chewing his food. The pottery with traces of white pigment.
While pack-saddled Bactrian camels became common in Northern Wei funerary ware, few of them are depicted with round baskets. On this rare example, the material, probably made from basketry or woven leather, is rendered with small incisions, further detailing the heads, humps and the fleece above the forelimbs.
A similar, stockier and less-stylised camel carrying two rounded baskets from the C.C. Wang Collection is illustrated in Anette L. Juliano, ‘Bronze, Clay and Stone’, 1988, pl. 39. Compare a similar pair of camels, from the Simone and Alan Hartman Collection, sold at Bonhams New York, 18 March 2024, lot 272.
