Lot 228. A polychromed cast-iron figure of a bodhisattva, Ming dynasty. Height 89.5 cm. Lot Sold 19,200 USD (Estimate 15,000 - 25,000 USD) © Sotheby's 2026

cast to the lower back with a partial inscription reading Wen cun zhi, wood base (2).

Provenance: Collection of Armand Trampitsch (1890-1975).

Galerie Jacques Barrère, Paris, 1985.

Exhibited: Exposition, Galerie Jacques Barrère, Paris, 1985.

Note: Extant examples of Ming-dynasty cast-iron figures in their entirety are relatively rare, particularly those of the scale of the present work. Cast in several sections and joined at the seams, such figures would have required an inordinate amount of material at a time when metals such as iron and bronze were in very short supply. Compare the present work with a cast-iron figure of Bodhidharma (Ch. Damo) of similar size in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 1975.413), illustrated on the museum's website. See, also, a cast-iron head of a bodhisattva with similar treatment of the face and crown, also in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no. 24.13.58), illustrated by Alan Priest in Chinese Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1944, p. 49, cat. no. 72, pl. 123.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, New York, 25 March 2026