Page 140 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art November 2018

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A LARGE BRONZE ‘ELEPHANT AND A GILT-BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF THE The deity can be identified as Bixia Yuanjun,
LUOHAN’ INCENSE BURNER AND COVER DAOIST ‘GODDESS OF THE MORNING also known as the Sovereign of the Clouds of
Ming Dynasty CLOUDS’, BIXIA YUANJUN Dawn or the Goddess of the Morning Clouds,
The figure cast seated atop a caparisoned Ming Dynasty by the representation of the five phoenixes
elephant, depicted with the left arm clutching The female deity portrayed with a benevolent in the headdress. The goddess was the
a scroll and the right hand resting on his raised face framed by an elaborate headdress of daughter of the male god of Mount Tai, the
right knee, dressed in long flowing robes falling flames enclosing five protruding phoenixes, easternmost of the Five Sacred Mountains in
into voluminous pleats and incised with clouds heavily cast seated with hands clasping a hu Shandong Province, where the Palace of the
and cranes and pierced cloud-form openings tablet, wearing a finely-layered robe adorned Clouds of Dawn, Bixia Gong, was built at the
for smoke, the shaved head with the prominent with a ruyi-shaped ornament around her chest. top of the mountain as her shrine during the
elongated brow of age and wisdom, the 23cm (9in) high. Ming dynasty. Figures of Bixia Yuanjun are a
elephant with its head turned sharply to the left, personification of the yin force and made for
its curled trunk flanked by a pair of sharp tusks, £3,000 - 5,000 use on Daoist altars.
the bronze patinated to an attractive dark CNY27,000 - 45,000
chocolate-brown tone. See a larger bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun,
38.5cm (15 1/8in) long. (2). 15th century, in the Art Institute of Chicago,
明 銅鎏金碧霞元君坐像 illustrated by S.Little and K.Schipper,

£8,000 - 12,000 Provenance: an English private collection Taoism and the Arts of China, California,
CNY72,000 - 110,000 2000, p.278, no.95; and see also a smaller
來源： 英國私人收藏 gilt-bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun, Ming
dynasty, in the British Museum, London (acc.
明 銅迦理迦尊者騎象香爐 no.1908,0420.6).

The Luohan riding the elephant can be identified Compare with a related large gilt-lacquered
as Kalika, one of the Eighteen Arhats also bronze figure of Bixia Yuanjun, late Ming
known as the ‘Elephant Riding Luohan’ (騎象 dynasty, which was sold at Bonhams Hong
羅漢). Compare with a related bronze Guanyin Kong, 29 May 2018, lot 10.
on an elephant, late Ming to Qing dynasty,
illustrated in The Second Bronze Age: Later
Chinese Metalwork, Hong Kong, 1991, no.7.

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