Page 30 - Bonhams Chinese Art March 2016 New York
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TWO GILT-BRONZE FIGURES OF DAOIST DEITIES
19th century
The first cast in the form of Cai Shen, wearing a Ming-style dragon robe and scholar’s cap,
the second figure depicting Bixia Yuanjun, crowned with a phoenix tiara, wearing a jeweled
pendant and elaborate belt, both decorated with elaborate patterns on the surfaces to imitate
embroidered fabric, each seated on wooden stands.
11in (28cm) high
$10,000 - 15,000
十九世紀 銅鎏金財神及碧霞原君坐像兩尊
While many gilt-bronze Buddhist figures survive, Daoist figures are much more rare, and it is
all the more pleasing to find the appropriate male and female pair together. A gilt-bronze figure
of Bixia Yuanjun, dated Ming dynasty, with related iconography and design, is in the collection
of the British Museum, museum number 1908,0420.6. A figure of a male deity with similar
form, dated Ming dynasty, is in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum, object number
80:2014. Compare also a similar gilt-bronze male and female pair offered at Christie’s Hong
Kong, 19-21 March 1990, lot 390.
28 | BONHAMS
