Page 33 - Fine Asian Art, Bonhams San Francisco June 27, 2017

8038 (front) 8038 (side)

PROPERTY FROM A SAN FRANCISCO COLLECTION Chapter 25 in the Lotus Sutra records that Avalokiteshvara can
bestow children of either sex, depending on the mother’s wishes.
8038 W However a male was desired in Chinese traditional culture as only
A MASSIVE POLYCHROME AND GILT LACQUERED WOOD a male could enter government service. The gold ingot held in the
FIGURE OF GUANYIN, THE GIVER OF SONS, SONGZI hand of the baby boy in this sculpture thus symbolizes the wealth
GUANYIN that a son could bring to the family from the emoluments of office.
Late Qing dynasty For a discussion by Robin Burlingham of Songzi Guanyin illustrated
Of pieced wood construction covered with layers of gilt lacquer in a late 16th century painting, see Latter Days of The Law: Images
over gray clay and colored with blue and red pigments, the figure of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850 (Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas,
posed leaning slightly forward her serene face looking downward 1994), cat. no. 46, pp. 358-359.
and her knotted coiffure framed by the folds of an outer garment
that envelopes her as she sits in the posture of royal ease with the
right knee raised and the left leg folded beneath her to support a
separately carved baby boy holding a gold ingot; the associated
pieced wood stand of hexagonal section finished in red and gilt
lacquer over shou characters and bats carved along the aprons
and the legs topped with lion heads attached to a black lacquered
stretcher base.
56in (142cm) height of figure
24 1/4in (61.5cm) height of wood stand

US$25,000 - 40,000

FINE ASIAN WORKS OF ART | 31