Page 52 - CHRISTIE'S Buddhist Art Japanese Collections 09/14/17
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The inscription may be translated, `disciple of the Buddha, Wang Yuanchang,
made this fgure for his grandparents’, and is dated 13th day, X month, 9th
year of Kaihuang (AD 589).
Compare the very closely related fgure from the collection of Fong Chow
(1923-2012), sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2013, lot 1189. The Fong
Chow example also had a dedicatory inscription, dated to AD 610, and bore
the name of the patron, Cao Zijin, who commissioned the fgure for his
deceased mother. Such inscriptions, providing protection or benefcence to
family members, were common from the Northern Wei dynasty through the
Tang; see, for example, lot 807, which bears a similar inscription.
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