Extremely Rare Painted Gary Pottery Bactrian Camel

Extremely Rare Painted Gary Pottery Bactrian Camel

Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 A.D.) 
Long 26 cm, high 32 cm. 

– The result of the thermoluminescence test, is consistent with the dating of the item. Test results will be provided to the winning bidder. 

Provenance: 
Very important and old German private collection, Mr. W. R., collected before 1995. 

Extremely Rare Painted Gary Pottery Bactrian Camel. The camel well modelled in a standing position . With head raised in a bray and kinked tail swished to one side. The tufts of hair on his head. Neck and body simply indicated with combed incising and stippling. Two large bags slung over the large saddle cloth fitted over the two humps. Traces of pigment and earth encrustation. 

A number of related examples of large camels in process of rising exist. See Wenwu, 1992:9, p. 67, fig. 6 for a slightly larger example excavated from Xi’an in 1988. Compare also the two camels and riders in Indianapolis Museum of Art illustrated by Mino and Robinson, Beauty and Tranquillity: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Indianapolis, 1983, pl. 59 and 60. And the pair in Klapthor, Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1993, no. 7.