A large bronze 'Laozi and Buffalo' incense burner and cover, Late Ming Dynasty. Est. HKD 300,000 — 500,000. Lot sold 575,000 HKD (74,192 USD). Photo: Sotheby's

the massively cast figure with a detachable cover, sturdily cast in the form of the sage seated with the right hand resting on the right knee, the expression depicted sombre and meditative, dressed in long loose robes cascading in folds around the exposed shoe, the mouth and back pierced through with apertures, fitted to the back of the hollow buffalo with a pin, the beast depicted strenuously moving forward, the head detailed with a well pronounced snout below a tuft of hair flanked by a pair of long curved striated horns, the patina of an even dark brown colour - length 45.9 cm., 18 in.

Provenance: Albert Bang Antiques, Paris, 1990s.

Notes: A closely related bronze incense burner, cast in the form of Laozi riding a buffalo and inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1629 or 1689, was included in the exhibition Between Heaven and Earth. Secular and Divine Figural Images in Chinese Paintings and Objects, Sydney L. Moss, London, 1988, cat. no. 38; another was sold in these rooms, 17th May 1989, lot 443; and a third from the collection of Eileen Bamberger, was sold in our New York rooms, 1st June 1994, lot 451. Laozi is one of the most revered immortals of Daoism, credited with the writing of the Daodejing [The classic of the Way and its power]. Depictions of Laozi riding an ox are numerous, as according to legend he was riding an ox on his way to the West, when he was asked by the keeper of the Hangu Mountain pass to write down his teachings.

Sotheby's. Later Chinese Bronzes From The Collection of Mr And Mrs Gerard Hawthorn. Hong Kong, 03 Dec 2015