Page 87 - Sothebys Sutra Auction Hong Kong
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TWO SETS OF HIGHLY attendants, including his principle disciples, Ananda and
Kasyapa, as well as Dishi Tian (Indra) and Fan Tian (Brahma),
IMPORTANT, EXCEEDINGLY each of the latter further accompanied by two female
attendants, those of Indra portrayed looking at each other
RARE AND SUMPTUOUSLY and respectively holding a ying whisk and a dish of lotus
BROCADED LEPORELLO owers, those of Fan Tian holding with both hands a canopy
and a miniature mountain-shaped rock, all below two groups
ALBUMS OF ILLUMINATED of four female Bodhisattvas on either side of the Buddha,
each gure rendered elaborately adorned with bejewelled
WISDOM SUTRA jewellery and an ornamental headdress, the impressive retinue
further accentuated with a group of four monks on each side,
COMMISSIONED BY IMPERIAL all between two groups of four esoteric beings sensitively
depicted on the outermost pages of the Buddhist pantheon,
ORDER AND SUPERVISED BY one side with a female Bodhisattva and three demon-like
HUIJIN gures, one with a bird’s beak and the other two adorned
with animal-mask caps, the other side with a male gure
MING DYNASTY, XUANDE accompanied by a yaksa demon, a bearded elderly man and
a gure in military garb, each of the outermost pages further
PERIOD; EXECUTION IN decorated to the lower corners with two of the four Heavenly
Kings, one side with Duowen Tian carrying a ‘royal emblem’
LIQUID GOLD ON INDIGO- and Guangmu Tian holding a snake and a pearl, the other
side with Chiguo Tian playing a pipa and Zengzhang Tian
COLOURED GOAT-BRAIN testing one nger on the blade of a sword, the magnicent
scene further highlighted with cloud scrolls and two apasaras
RITUAL PAPER elegantly soaring at the top, followed by the fascicles, each
inscribed with its title and the name of the translator – monk
comprising two sets of ve leporello albums (vols 61-65 Xuanzang of the Tang dynasty – before a neat structure of
and 226-230) from the Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Sutra of six columns of seventeen characters per page, all in taige ti
Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom, sumptuously bound (‘eminent court o¬cial style’) between two double-borders,
in yellow silk with a woven pattern of Buddhist motifs, each the end of the last album further gilt-etched with the guardian
album executed in gold ink on indigo-coloured ‘goat-brain’ Weituo in military garb, each set tted in its folding hard-board
paper with a glossy black surface, the rst album further brocade box, leather boxes
decorated with illustrations through lling the engraved each leaf 40.5 by 14.5 cm, 16 by 5¾ in.
grooves with gold, opening with a pair of gilt-etched lotus vols 61-65 box: 19 by 16.5 by 42 cm, 7½ by 6½ by 16½ in.
sprays, above a stele rendered in the form of six ve-clawed vols 226-230 box: 16.5 by 16.2 by 42 cm, 6½ by 6 by 16½ in.
dragons soaring sinuously and chasing ‘aming pearls’, above
crashing waves and jagged rockwork, the mythical beasts PROVENANCE
framing a double-line rectangular cartouche enclosing the A Kyoto aristocratic collection, 1917.
characters yuzhi (‘made to imperial order’) above a further Collection of Fujio Fujii, Tokyo, 1944-1955.
cartouche inscribed with a prayer for the nation’s well- Collection of Colonel Thomas Phillips III, USA, since 1955.
being, the following ve pages meticulously and elaborately An American family trust, acquired from the widow of the
gilt-etched with a scene depicting a Buddhist pantheon of previous owner in early 1980s.
forty celestial beings, centred with the gure of Shakyamuni A Swiss private collection, c. 2005.
Buddha seated on a double-lotus pedestal atop a throne
against an openwork torana and preaching to a celestial EXHIBITED
host kneeling before him, the revealed esh tones of the Ming: Fifty Years That Changed China, The British Museum,
Buddha further skilfully rendered with a carved gold-inlled London, 2014, p. 218, g. 188.
surface, anked by two pages on each side impeccably and Estimate Upon Request
densely lled with disciples, deities, demons, guardians and
