Page 126 - Christie's Inidian and HImalayan Works of Art, March 2019

PROPERTY OF A DISTINGUISHED GENTLEMAN
686
A SMALL GILT-BRONZE FIGURE
OF AMITAYUS
NEPAL, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
2√ in. (7.3 cm.) high
$4,000-6,000

PROVENANCE
Pan-Asian Collection (Christian Humann), by repute
Robert Hatfeld Ellsworth, New York, by 2007
Christie’s New York, 21 September 2007, lot 175
Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org),
item no. 24462.

687
A COPPER REPOUSSÉ
VAJRACHARYA CROWN
NEPAL, DATED BY INSCRIPTION TO 1846
686 9Ω in. (24.1 cm.) high
$6,000-8,000

PROVENANCE
Property of Mrs. Liberty Winter, Cambridge,
Massachusetts; Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, 10
December 1980, lot 63
This style of crown is worn by Newar Buddhist
priests or vajracharya in the Vajrayana tradition
of the Kathmandu Valley. The crown, used for
ritual practices, empowerments, and initiating
practitioners into Tantric traditions, depicts the
five tathagatha: Ratnasambhava, Akshobhya,
Vairochana, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi. The
inscription indicates that the crown was ofered
by Machindrasing Manandhar to the priest
Bidhyananda Bajracharya from Sikhamu Bahal.
For a nearly identical example see the Vajracharya
crown dated to 1864 at The Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York (acc. no. 36.25.2979).
Himalayan Art Resources (himalayanart.org),
item no. 24452.

688
A GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF VISHNU
NEPAL, 14TH-15TH CENTURY
6æ in. (17.1 cm.) high
$20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE
Acala Gallery, London, by 1974
687 Private collection, Germany, 1990s, by repute

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