 BRONZE BUDDHA Current and Past Exhibitions
27 BRONZE BUDDHA.THAILAND.MON-DVARAVATI STYLE.8TH - 9TH CENTURY .H. 33 CMS, 13 INS.A large and important bronze figure of a standing Buddha, both hands forming vitarka (teaching)-mudra, the robe covering both shoulders and falling from the wrist to follow the contours of the body down to a typical U-shaped hem, the undergarments visible beneath, with long earlobes, a narrow face, downcast eyes and lips forming a slight smile, the hair arranged in tight curls rising to a conical usnisha. The Mon-Dvaravati kingdom, which flourished from the sixth through tenth centuries AD, was established when the Mons of Burma migrated south into Siam. They became ensconced in the river basins of Central Thailand – their main centres at Nakhon Pathom, Lopburi, U-Thong and Kubua - and ruled the area for four centuries. Mon-Dvaravati art finds its origins in the Gupta art of India; characterised by curled hair, full lips and a small waist. The Mon adaptation of the Gupta style incorporates both Hindu and (Theravada) Buddhist iconography. The great 110cm bronze Buddha in the National Museum, Bangkok, is similar to this example - see no. 15 in R. Ringis (ed.), Treasures from the National Museum, Bangkok, Bangkok: National Museum Volunteers Group, 1987. For another example see fig. 59 (cat. no. 9) in Hiram W. Woodward, The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand. The Alexander B. Griswold Collection, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, 1997.Provenance: Private English Collection.Purchased from Spink and Son Ltd in July 1995.
|  BLUE GLAZED POTTERY JAR AND COVER Current and Past Exhibitions
6 BLUE GLAZED POTTERY JAR AND COVER.CHINA, HENAN AREA.TANG DYNASTY, 618 - 907 AD.H. 15.5 CMS, 6 1/8 INS. A blue-glazed pottery jar and cover of well-rounded ovoid form with a flared neck and a flat foot, the shaped cover with pointed knop, the earthenware body covered in a deep cobalt-blue glaze pooling around the base, the inside rim glazed blue, the interior thinly applied with a cream coloured glaze.The intense blue of this vessel derives from cobalt, imported from Persia and introduced to China in the 8th century. These glazes were sometimes applied over a white slip to enhance the purity and brilliance of the colours.For an identical vase with a similarly rich cobalt glaze in the Collection of the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, see plate 133, page 182 in The Silk Road and The World of Xuanzong, Exhibition catalogue, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, June 12 - August 8, 1999. Another vase decorated with a green glaze is illustrated as plate 226, page 138 in R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume One, Azimuth Editions, 1994. Age verified by Oxford thermoluminescence test, certificate no. C199t80.Provenance: From the collection of a titled English lady. Purchased from Spink and Son Ltd - illustrated as catalogue no. 38 in Treasures from the Silk Road: Devotion, Conquest and Trade along Asia’s highways, Spink, 1999.
|  26 STUCCO HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA Current and Past Exhibitions
26 STUCCO HEAD OF A BODHISATTVA. NORTHWEST PAKISTAN OR AFGHANISTAN.GANDHARA.4TH - 5TH CENTURY AD.H. 18 CMS, 7 INS. A sublimely beautiful white stucco head of a Bodhisattva with a gentle face and soft eyes, the hair in wavy lines and secured by a circular diadem.In Kim, Rudyard Kipling refers to the Gandhara sculptures of the Lahore Museum as possessing ‘the mysteriously transmitted Grecian touch’ and this is especially apparent here. For a similar head see no. 328 in Isao Kurita, Gandharan Art II: The Buddha’s Life Story, Tokyo: Nigensha publishing, 2003.
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