Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 63 251. A Chinese Pottery Figure of a Young Foreign Rider on a Kneeling Bactrian Camel , Tang Dynasty (618-907), modeled in three parts: rider and saddle blanket, saddle, and camel; the turbaned foreign male rider rendered straddling an arched saddle blanket, one leg bent to secure his position; the saddle modeled with two apertures for the camel’s humps flanked by flanges and pole braces; the camel rendered crouching, its front legs neatly tucked beneath its body and its back legs bent in a kneeling stance, its long, arched neck supporting a raised braying head, height 14 1/2 in., length 18 1/2 in., accompanied by an Oxford Authentication Thermoluminescence Analysis Report no. C104w61, dated October 2004. $3000/5000 Provenance: Acquired Hong Kong, 2004. Note: The result of the Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no. C104w61 is consistent with the dating of this lot. During the Tang Dynasty the trade route known as the Silk Road flourished. Most of the overland trade between China and the West was carried out by Central Asian and Near Eastern merchants. Indicative of the trade route’s incredible breadth, two-hump Bactrian camels were preferred to the single-hump Arabian camels as they were more capable of traveling father distances. Figures of these camels were likely modeled for persons of rank and means. Given its choice as the primary method of transporting goods along the Silk Road, the camel’s presence both in life and in the afterlife connoted abundance and prosperity. 252. A Chinese Painted Cizhou Ware Dragon and Phoenix Jar , probably Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the tapering globular body with a short neck, painted around the exterior in shades of brown with two large shaped panels enclosing a large scaly dragon rising from a sea of waves and a phoenix in flight amid cloud scrolls, separated by pendant and upright leaf tips, height 8 3/4 in. $3000/5000 Provenance: Richfield Antiques, New York, NY; acquired 1974. Note: For a similarly decorated Cizhou jar with phoenix and dragon design, see New Orleans Museum of Art, acc. # 2000.400, illustrated Rotondo-McCord, Lisa, Five Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics from the Robin and R. Randolph Richmond, Jr. Collection , New Orleans Museum of Art, p. 122, pl. 97. 253. A Chinese Blue and White Porcelain Pear Form Vase, Yuhuchunping , Guangxu mark and probably of the Period (1875-1908), the globular body with sloping flared neck raised on a slightly splayed foot ring, decorated with plantain, bamboo and tall rocks set in a fenced garden, between bands of pendant ruyi , scrolling vine, and stiff upright leaves around the sloping shoulder and upright stylized petal panels above the foot, base with six character Guangxu mark, height 11 1/4 in. $6000/8000 254. A Pair of Chinese Polychrome Enameled Blue and White Porcelain Urns , probably late 19th c., tapering shouldered bodies with short flared necks decorated in underglaze blue and overglaze enamels with a profusion of flowering branches and rocks, each marked to side, base of one marked, height 24 1/8 in. Note: Restoration to one at base and neck. $1500/2500 251 252 254 253