Lot 1. An inscribed brass alloy figure of standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, circa 6th century; 28 cm (11 in.) high. Estimate HK$ 15,000,000 - 20,000,000 (€ 1,600,000 - 2,200,000). Unsold. © Bonhams 2001-2018

Inscribed in punched Brahmi:
deya dharmo'yam sa (a)kya bhikso (h) budha pratima yaso nandina (a) sadham mata-pitrau parama duskara [...]troba(?u,?sa) dhamupaddhayena. 

This is the pious gift of the Sakya monk an image of the Buddha by Yaso-Nandini [...] together with mother and father, most difficult [....] Buddha, by the teacher.

Published: Le Roy Davidson and Nick Douglas, The Enlightened Ones in Sacred Buddhist Art, Kreitman Gallery, Los Angeles, 1980, pp.16-9, pl.6. 
Ulrich Von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, p.64, pl.5.  
Deborah Klimburg-Salter, The Silk Route and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes, Los Angeles, 1982, p.131, pl.2.  
Chandra Reedy, 'Determining The Region of Origin of Himalayan Copper Alloy Status through Technical Analysis', in A Pot-Pourri of Indian Art, 1988, p.79, no.3. 
Elizabeth Errington and Joe Cribb (eds.), Crossroads of Asia: Transformation in Image and Symbol in the Art of Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan, Cambridge, 1992, pp.vi & 215-7, no.209. 
Chandra Reedy, Himalayan Bronzes: Technology, Style, and Choices, Delaware, 1997, p.82, pl.3. 

Referenced: Pratapaditya Pal, Asian Art at the Norton Simon Museum: Art from the Indian Subcontinent, vol.1, New Haven, 2003, p.55 
John Suidmak, The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and its Influences, Brill, 2013, p.71.

Exhibited The Silk Route and the Diamond Path, UCLA, Los Angeles, 7 November 1982 - 2 January 1983; Asia Society, New York, 6 February - 3 April 1983; National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 28 April - 30 June 1983. 
Crossroads of Asia: Transformation in Image and Symbol, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 6 October - 13 December 1992. 
Loaned and displayed at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology, Oxford, 1999-2004.

Provenance: Acquired in the U.S. from a Private Collection, 1979 
Private American Trust