Lot 83. A rare silver figure of Naro Dakini, Tibeto-Chinese, 18th century; 20cm (7 7/8in) overall height. Estimate £ 10,000-12,000. Sold for £ 25,000 (€ 28,609). © Bonhams.

The deity striding in alidhasana on a gilt bronze base cast with two prostrate human figures and sealed with a double vajra, holding a curved knife in her outstretched right hand and a skull cup in the left, clad in various beaded jewellery and a garland of skulls about her neck, her wrathful face with three eyes surmounted by a foliate tiara of skull heads, her hair piled into a high chignon, surrounded by a gilt copper halo of flames. 

Provenance: the Jeannette Claude Jongen collection of Buddhist Art.

Published and Illustrated: A.Neven, Etudes D'Art Lamaique et de L'Himalaya, Brussels, 1978, p.110, pl.8 (the catalogue is offered as part of the lot).

Note: As noted by D.Weldon and J.C.Singer in The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, London, 1999, p.124, illustrating a related silver figure of Mahapratisara, 17th century - silver, a precious metal - was used only rarely and apparently for special commissions in Tibet. See also a related but earlier silver figure of Yi-dam Cakrasamvara, Tibet, 17th century, with a gilt stand and mandorla, illustrated by H.Uhlig, On the Path to Enlightment: The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, pl.112.

A related rare silver figure of Usnisavijaya on a gilt-copper pedestal, 17th century, sold in these rooms on 6 November 2014, lot 366.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, London, 12 November 2015