Lot 277. A carved cinnabar lacquer 'birds' box and cover, Ming dynasty, 16th century; Diameter 8.2 cm, 3¼ in. Lot sold: 8,190 GBP (Estimate: 4,000 - 6,000 GBP). © 2022 Sotheby's.

Property from a European Private Collection.

Provenance: JBerwald Oriental Art Ltd., London, 12th June 2003.

Note: This particularly moving figure represents an evolution from the traditional iconography of the Song dynasty (960-1279) Buddhist sculpture. Its salient stylistic features probably mark it as a generation later, and can be compared with the iconography of the Yuan and early Ming Buddhist statuary, namely a fuller oval face, a bare chest with elaborate beaded necklace, a thin shawl covering the upper back and enveloping the shoulders.

See a Boddhisattva with related features in the collection of the Ashmoleum Museum, Oxford, no. EA1956.1376, attributed to the late Song Dynasty. Compare also a pair of 14th century parcel-gilt bronze figures of Bodhisattvas, sold in our Paris rooms, 10th December 2019, lot 14, as well as a large Yuan dynasty gilt-bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara, included in the exhibition Buddha. 2000 years of Buddhist Art. 232 Masterpieces, European Centre for Art and Industrial Culture, Völklinger Hütte, 2016, cat. no. 59.

Sotheby's. Monochrome, London, 2 November 2022