A RARE PAIR OF PAINTED GREY POTTERY FIGURES OF RECUMBENT BACTRIAN CAMELS
Early Tang dynasty
Each realistically modeled with heads turned to one side and braying, displaying flared nostrils and open mouths, the humps of each falling to opposite sides and covered below with a blanket which is painted in a white pigment with a cross-hatch design that forms an attractive horizontal stripe across the camels, two large bulging bags straddle the humps and are painted with a tiger-skin-like design, the remainder of the bodies are highlighted in a red pigment, save for the faces which have white pigment with black details, the underside with four square slots possibly to receive wooden legs.
8 1/4in (21.2cm) high; 12 1/4in (31.1cm) long (2).
Footnotes:
唐早期 加彩灰陶臥駝俑一對

Provenance:
Sotheby's New York, 3 June 1992, lot 165
The Harold and Ruth Newman Collection, Connecticut, 1992-2022

來源：
紐約蘇富比，1992年6月3日，拍品編號165
Harold and Ruth Newman舊藏，康州，1992-2022年

For another recumbent camel with with a monster-mask saddle bag, rather than the bulging bag of our example in The Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, see www.nhb.gov.sg, accession no. 1997-01942; and another with separate saddle and bag, see Bonhams, London, 11 May 2021, lot 72.

Restorations, losses and retouching including but not limited to the following:
This is a rare type, that originally had wooden supports. The figures bear whimsical expressions, and elegant details.
each with pigment losses in lower portions of bodies, one with restoration to neck where it meets the body, and some retouching of the faded pigments.