Page 76 - Indian, Himalayan and Tibetan Art March 2018

1050

COLLECTION OF THE LATE DR. FRANCIS LUDWIG
ANTON
AN EXCEPTIONAL GILT-BRONZE
GROUP OF YAMANTAKA AND
VAJRAVETALI
Tibeto-Chinese, 18th Century
the fearsome deity standing in alidhasana with his
consort on a double-lotus throne, with nine circular
faces, the primary bu* alo face with three bulging
eyes and bared fangs, wearing the ! ve-skull crown,
the head of bodhisattva Manjushri at the top,
the $ aming orange hair streaming upwards, with
thirty-four arms holding various ritual weapons, the
eight legs trampling myriad Hindu deities, wearing
garlands of skulls, snakes and severed heads and
adorned with the six Tantric bone ornaments, the
consort with the proper right leg wrapped around
the waist of her partner, holding a kapala or skull
cup in the proper left hand and a kartrika or chopper
in the right hand, wearing a crown and garland
ornamented with skulls, the $ aming orange hair tied
elegantly at the back of head
Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13401.
Height: 14 ¼ in. (36.5 cm)
PROVENANCE
Acquired in California, 1920s; thence by descent.
The current lot was previously in the collection of
the late Dr. Francis Ludwig Anton (1876– 1951).
Per notes compiled in the 1940s by Dr. Anton’s
daughter, Mrs. Frances Anton Clarke, this bronze
was sourced in Asia in the early twentieth century
by an American collector commissioned to acquire
items of value on behalf of Mr. Clarence Heinz
(1873–1920), the eldest son of The H.J. Heinz
Company.
Upon the death of Mr. Heinz in 1920, his Los Angeles
home and its contents, including the current lot,
were purchased by Dr. Anton. In the 1950s, the
bronze was appraised by Dr. Nordewin von Koerber
at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, one of
the leading authorities on Tibet in the US at the
time. Dr. von Koerber determined it to be a ! ne and
rare piece, and in his estimation, an original. It has
remained with the Anton family since then, and is
being o* ered by his direct descendants.
The late Dr. Anton was born in Munich, Germany
in 1876. He emigrated to the United States in 1892,
and graduated from the University of Southern
California as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) in 1899.
He married Sarah Elizabeth Neill in 1900, and from
1900—1906 he had a private medical practice in
Nome, Alaska. On his return to Los Angeles, Dr.
Anton was an instructor in gynaecology for the
Los Angeles Department College of Medicine, and
later established a private practice as a General
Practitioner and surgeon until his death in 1951.
He was a member of the Los Angeles County
Medical Society, the Medical Society of the State of
California, and the American Medical Association.

$ 250,000-350,000

74 SOTHEBY’S