Page 78 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

(mark on pedestal of right lion)
C. T. Loo (1880 - 1957)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
士紳藏品
70 * TP
A VERY RARE PAIR OF MONUMENTAL FAHUA BUDDHIST Audrey B. Love, a philanthropist and patron of the arts, was the
LIONS ON STANDS daughter of Edith Guggenheim and Admiral Louis Josephthal.
Late Ming Dynasty, 16th/17th century C. Ruxton Love Jr. was a partner with the Stock Exchange firm
The imposing pair, each superbly modelled as male and female beasts of Josephtal & Co. Both were well known art collectors and their
seated on their haunches with wide bulging eyes and wide gaping collection of Napoleonic art was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum
mouth, wearing a tassel-hung collar around the neck, the mane, of Art in 1978 and their Georgian silver collection was exhibited in the
thighs and flames issuing from the powerful body glazed amber, the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2002. Audrey Love was a founding
female with the right forepaw over a playful cub, the male with the left member of the Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami.
forepaw over a brocade ball, both creatures resting on a square and
waisted lotus base elaborately carved with bands of peony scrolls, This outstanding pair of Buddhist lions belongs to a specially
petal lappets and ruyi, the central constricted section decorated with a commissioned statuary group that served as guardians, and was most
rabbit, deer, recumbent cow and qilin, the lower section of one base a likely specially commissioned for an important temple. Few related
wood replacement and painted to match. sculptures of such massive proportions have survived, making this pair
203.3cm (80in) high overall. (4). exceptionally rare. Such sculptures would have probably been placed
outdoors, either entirely or within a protective shelter. Furthermore, the
£150,000 - 250,000 massive size and complexity of the stoneware sectional structure, are
CNY1,300,000 - 2,200,000 all elements which would have made such sculptures more susceptible
to damage, resulting in few of them surviving.

明末十六/十七世紀 琺華釉狻猊坐像配蓮紋基座 一對 Compare, with a very similar pair of monumental fahua Buddhist
lions, Ming dynasty, in the Newark Museum, New Jersey, acc.no.
Provenance: Collection of the grandson of the Daoguang Emperor, 39.430.1-2. This pair of lions is remarkably similar to the present lot,
by repute and was most likely made in the same workshop. Furthermore, the
C.T.Loo & Co. (labels) close similarity suggests that both pairs may have originated in the
Cornelius Ruxton Love Jr. (1904 - 1971) and Audrey B. Love same temple or complex. The Newark Museum lions were gifted to
(1903 - 2003), New York the museum in 1939 by Herman A.E. Jaehne and Paul C. Jaehne. The
Christie’s New York, The C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection, present lions bear C.T.Loo labels, who was active in the US from 1915
20 October 2004, lot 317 to 1950. It is therefore likely that both pairs of lions reached the US
A distinguished Western private collection prior to 1939, and were both possibly sold by C.T.Loo. in New York.

來源： Compare also another pair of large lions, 16th century, glazed in a
據傳為道光帝內孫所藏 sancai palette, illustrated by Y.L d’Argencé, ed., Chinese, Korean and
巴黎古董商C.T.Loo & Co.（標貼） Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, Japan, 1974,
紐約藏家Cornelius Ruxton Love Jr.先生 (1904 - 1971)及Audrey B. Love pp.320-321, no.171. See also a related but smaller pair of Buddhist
女士(1903 - 2003)收藏 lions on pedestals, with a temple dedicatory inscription dated to
2004年10月20日於紐約佳士得「C. Ruxton先生及Audrey B. Love女士 1465 (61cm high), which was sold at Christie’s London 31 March
收藏」專場拍賣，拍品317號 1969, illustrated by A.du Boulay, Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese
顯貴西方私人收藏 Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p.180, no.2.

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