Page 107 - Bonhams Asian & Chinese Art November 2018

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A PART-SET OF TANTRIC BUDDHIST Initiation cards were used as representations A GROUP OF FOUR SMALL BUDDHIST
INITIATION CARDS, TSAKALI during the formal bestowing of a tantric FIGURES
Tibet, 19th/20th century meditation practice (Initiation), along with India and Tibet, 18th/19th to early 20th century
Distemper on cloth; nineteen sheets depicting lineage teachers. They were used by itinerant Comprising: a seated gilt bronze, Sino-
various peaceful and wrathful meditational monks and nuns when travelling from Tibetan guardian figure with coral and
deities, single or in yab-yum with their consort, monastery to monastery, and their function turquoise inset; a gilt bronze Sino-Tibetan
each inscribed to the reverse with instructions would have been that of creating a fixed figure of a kneeling Bodhisattva; a copper-
and mantras, with wooden covers. space like that of the temple, when disposed alloy figure of Ganesha; and a bronze figure
Each: 13.2cm (5 1/8in) x 10.5cm (4 1/8in) (19). on the ground to form a mandala. of a Siddha; together with a copper alloy
altar implement on a stand of lotus lappets
£800 - 1,200 A set of initiation cards is illustrated by and beaded jewellery.
Jeff Watt, HAR item no. 289, and is in the
HK$8,200 - 12,000 collection of the Rubin Museum of Art, acc.# The largest: 6cm (2 3/8in) high (5).
CNY7,200 - 11,000
F1997.19.1. For another set of initiation
Provenance cards see The State Hermitage Museum, £800 - 1,200
HK$8,200 - 12,000
Abode of Charity, Tibetan Buddhist Art,
The Oliver Robert Coales Collection, acquired Exhibition Catalogue, The State Hermitage CNY7,200 - 11,000
by Mr Coales when working and travelling Publishers, Saint Petersburg, 2015, pp. 450-
in Eastern Tibet in 1916-17, and thence by 451, no. 294-312. A further set of cards are Provenance
descent. in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, item The Oliver Robert Coales Collection, acquired
no.2000.282.1-25. by Mr Coales during his career in the British
Consular Service in China between 1901
and 1926, and when working and travelling
in Eastern Tibet in 1916-17, and thence by
descent.

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please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue. ASIAN ART - PART I | 105