Page 77 - Bonhams FINE CHINESE ART London November 2 2021

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A VERY LARGE PAIR OF GILT-COPPER REPOUSSÉ The deer, one male and female, with their attentive demeanour,
MODELS OF DEER symbolise the audience of Shakyamuni Buddha’s first teaching at the
Tibet or Mongolia, 19th century deer park of Sarnath after attaining enlightenment. He preached the
The creatures both recumbent, with their legs tucked underneath their eight-fold path towards liberation from the suffering of unenlightened
bodies, each with alert expression defined by slightly-raised heads and life. The deer would have flanked an eight-spoked Wheel of Dharma,
pricked ears, one with a short single horn, stands. symbolising the Buddhist teaching or ‘Turning of the Wheel’, and
61cm (24in) long. (4). are generally placed above the front gate of a Buddhist monastery,
allowing for the path toward liberation and happiness to progress. See
£12,000 - 18,000 a similar pair of gilt copper deer, in a black and white photograph of
CNY110,000 - 160,000 the Shalu Monastery in Shigatse, South-central Tibet, taken in 1939
during Tucci’s expedition, illustrated in Discovering Tibet: The Tucci
十九世紀 銅鎏金錘揲鹿形飾座一對 Expeditions and Tibetan Paintings, Turin, 2015, p.50.

Provenance: Christie’s New York, 21 March 2007, lot 341 For another similar pair of gilt-copper deer (one on the front cover), see
R.Thurman and D.Weldon, Sacred Symbols: The Ritual Art of Tibet,
來源：紐約佳士得，2007年3月21日，拍品編號341 New York, 1999, no.1.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. FINE CHINESE ART | 75