Page 42 - Bonhams IMages of Devotion, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022
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A GILT COPPER ALLOY RITUAL SWORD HANDLE Compare with a closely related example in the Metropolitan Museum
TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURY of Art, New York (2017.161), and another in the Josette Schulamn
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 4742 Collection with a blade bearing a Nepalese inscription dedicated to
13 cm (5 1/8 in.) long Mahakala (see Nathalie Bazin et al., Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes
du Vème Dalaï Lama (1617 – 1682), 2002, p. 146, no. 105).
HKD120,000 - 150,000
Provenance
西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金寶劍柄 Private California Collection, acquired in the 1980s
Cast in one piece, this hilt which once would have been connected to
a blade, symbolizes wisdom and the severance of ties to spiritual and
temporal ignorance. The decorative patterning in low relief, with a grip
shaped as a leonine face, and the top crowned with a vajra, conveys
its ceremonial function, one whose rituals are often associated with
deities like Manjusri, Padmasambhava, and Palden Lhamo.
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