Important Chinese Art
Important Chinese Art
A RARE MINIATURE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA, LATE TANG DYNASTY/FIVE DYNASTIES | 唐末/五代 鎏金銅菩薩坐像
Auction Closed
November 4, 07:52 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A RARE MINIATURE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
LATE TANG DYNASTY/FIVE DYNASTIES
唐末/五代 鎏金銅菩薩坐像
seated on a tiered double lotus pedestal with hands held in namaskara mudra before the chest, wearing a diaphanous robe and jewelled necklaces, the face with a contemplative expression, the long hair pulled up into a topknot and secured with a circled crown
(2)
Height 6 cm, 2⅜ in.
This charming little figure is part of a group of a set of figures of the same miniature size and pose. Exquisitely cast and richly gilt they may have been part of a miniature altar placed in a reliquary chamber underneath a pagoda in the late Tang period. A set of figures from the collection of the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, is published in Ancient Chinese Art in the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo, 1989, pl. 347. Several other examples have been sold at auction, compare two figures missing the pedestal base, sold in Christie’s New York, 2nd June 1989, lot 107, and another pair sold in Sotheby’s London, 5th December 1995, lot 26.