Page 42 - Bonhams Image of Devotion Hong Kong December 2, 2021

From the extensive inscription featured across the base it is clear that the deity
also served in a tutelary capacity, protecting the devotees that commissioned the
sculpture:

“In the year of 938 [Samvat] (1818 CE), on the second day of the dark half of the
Vaishakha month, Anuradha nashatra, Friday, Bhaju Dham, Baju Narasim, and
Tejanaram commissioned and perfected this image of their tutelary deities (Siva
and his consort). Two priests Kureshvara and Acarya consecrated the image.
Jasadhana was in charge of all these activities.”

We are grateful to Dr. Gautama Vajracharya for his assistance with the translation.

In subject matter and composition, the present lot compares favorably to the
best-known direct comparisons. One is held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
(25.481), the other published in Pal, Nepal: Where the Gods are Young, 1975,
no.68. Meanwhile another dated shrine image of Sukhavati Lokeshvara produced
within the same month as the present lot is held in the Newark Museum,
published in Reynolds, Tibetan Collection: III/Sculpture and Painting, 1986,
pp.121-2, no.S45.

Provenance
Private English Collection
Bonhams, Hong Kong, 29 November 2016, lot 142
Private Asian Collection

40 | BONHAMS