Central Asian Falconer

Probably with Wen Kuan Chai, Peiping (modern-day Beijing), China, by November 21, 1931 [1];

Probably purchased from Wen Kuan Chai, through Laurence Sickman, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1933.

NOTES:

[1] In a letter to Langdon Warner dated November 21, 1931, Laurence Sickman described several Tang figures he had recently acquired from Wen Kuan Chai for the Nelson-Atkins: "The tall fellow in the great cap is the leader of a camel caravan just arrived from central Asia and the sculpture caught him as he wondered about the streets of Lo Yang." It is not definitively confirmed that Sickman was discussing this particular figure, but considering the date of the correspondence and Sickman's description, especially when considered in the context of other Han figures acquired around the same time, it is likely this is the sculpture to which Sickman was referring. Harvard University Pusey Library, Langdon Warner Personal Archive, box 12, folder 21, copies in Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.