LOT 160: A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA IN ROYAL EASE, YONGLE MARK AND PERIOD

now we will be talking about Lot number 160 in our upcoming sale of Fine Chinese art on March 9 2023 and this is a jungler marking period uh guilt bronze of avalokiteshwara with uh 17 centimeters um massively guilt and very heavy of course as it should be with its original ceiling and the engraved double larger symbol AS all these figures from this group have and should have the remarkable thing about this piece is that it's been in private hands for a very long time and it was uh covered entirely in varnish which is not uncommon for bronzes that were brought to Europe at some point in the 19th or early 20th century and the varnish has blackened over time which is also not unusual you can still see it here in the gaps in the many small cavities and gaps there there's some minor wear to the gilding in some areas but I'd argue 99 of the gilding is is very very well preserved so it's really in a superb condition with no losses whatsoever um and most of the remaining black varnish that we left in place can also be removed we claimed this with um alcohol and and cotton pads so it was a process that took several weeks for one person because it's it's not invasive so the guilt is very easily scratched so you have to do it with very soft tissue that's what we did and you can see the figure was almost entirely black and the Mark here which is found on the side Imperial jungler mark is in size it's very very fine and it's below the raised knee of the avalokiteshwara and it was covered entirely under the black varnish so it was impossible to see and the previous owner had no idea it's it's there and actually we hadn't either we just had to clean the piece and so it was discovered by our store and um it's it's interesting to note that there's probably only one other figure that has this specific feature that the Mark is not where it always sits that would be in front here but it would be partially hidden because since the figure is sitting in this Royal ease poster which is uh which is uh uh very nice and and a classic uh poster for avalokitashva but then because of this this thing posture it would not be possible to put the Mark here because it would partly be covered by this foot which normally if it sit be seated in the Lotus position the foot would be here so it would not be no problem to put the Mark here but so they had to invent something for this specific position and so they decided to put the mark under the raised knee and took us a long time because we were in touch with uh above the National Palace Museum in Taipei and also in Beijing and they don't have one that has this Mark but there's one in in Larsa in Tibet uh and it's Illustrated in the uh book about that Buddhist uh sculpture in Tibet and it is inventory number three five three D um and you can clearly see that it has the same position as ours but the raised knee here and if you look very close you can see the Mark here on the corner very very rare and uh probably one of a kind to ever appear on the auction Market uh we all know of course that the the casting of these younger bronzes is incredibly Sharp and this is also confirmed by the x-ray images we took from the statue you can see that the way the base is constructed inside this razor sharp it's mirroring exactly the cast outside uh which is again exactly as it should be and it also has of course this very characteristic younger face but also this uh early Ming Dynasty gilding which is impossible to copy um it's a very solid uh and very fine gilding and the gold is almost pure it was used for it and in terms of auction result comparisons there's not many I mean there's no other piece like this one it's it's absolutely unique uh it doesn't exist as a copy and it's it's never been on the market and there's no comparison of this exact same piece so it's it's it's literally the only one so it's hard to compare but similarly rare pieces on the Oxford Market have fetched uh uh way above a million euros million one and a half two million we chose one because it's also in a similar position but it's has the right knee raised not the left one as ours so the Mark is here in the front because the left foot is where it should be not like here so they could put the mark where it's normally sitting but it has exactly the same size it's actually 18 centimeters is a little bit more than 17 so there's a few millimeters difference it's literally exactly the same size and it's also in similar condition this one has a little bit more wear than ours um and there's one sold for a little more than half a million pounds uh 15 years 16 years ago so it's roughly 900 000 Euros in today's money I think that's a suitable comparison but maybe this one is a bit more because it's so incredibly rare um but then of course it is a fresh Discovery it was uh unknown and so the we still have it with the original estimate uh that is a hundred thousand Euro and the starting price of 50 000 Euros there's no Reserve So in theory it could be purchased for an amount which is a mere fraction of its actual value there's lots of interests probably going to be but still it's worth a shot so I hope you can acquire it at our next sale it's a it's a real Gem of Buddhist early Chinese Buddhist sculpture uh from the only period and yeah the sale is on March 9 2023 and uh yeah good luck in bidding

Channel: Galerie Zacke - Fine Asian Art

Views: 1,243

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Id: cKRbaVssp3w

Length: 7min 45sec (465 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023