Spellbound: Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft

OXFORD.- The Ashmolean’s autumn exhibition explores the history of a fascinating cultural phenomenon – magic. SPELLBOUND displays 180 objects from 12th-century Europe to newly commissioned contemporary artworks. They range from the beautiful and mysterious (crystal balls, books of spells), the bizarre and macabre (a unicorn’s horn, a human heart encased in lead), to the profoundly touching (the testimony of women accused of witchcraft, the lovers’ padlocks cut from Leeds Centenary Bridge). The exhibition explores the inner lives of our ancestors, offering an insight into how people in the past actually felt and what they did to cope with the world they lived in. Looking at human hopes, fears and passions and asking visitors questions about their own beliefs and rituals, the exhibition aims to show how, even in this sceptical age, we still use magical thinking and why we might need a bit of magic in our lives.

Human heart in heart-shaped lead and silver case. Found concealed in a niche in the pillar in the crypt beneath Christ’s Church, Cork, 12th or 13th century, 2.3 x 1.6 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

SPELLBOUND is a dramatic and unsettling experience. Specially commissioned works by contemporary artists (Ackroyd & Harvey, Katharine Dowson and Annie Cattrell) provide evocative responses to the themes of the show, conjuring demons, flames and unnerving noises. People will encounter six objects and six questions which challenge the extent to which we still think magically. ‘Do you have a lucky object?’ is linked to a carved coral brooch (17th/18th-century) of St Michael defeating Satan – an image of good triumphing over evil made in a material believed to have protective properties. ‘Could you stab the image of a loved-one?’ is asked next to a Chinese wax figurine pierced with pins. One of the most famous objects is a silver flask from the Pitt Rivers. It was obtained in 1915 from an old woman who lived in Hove, Sussex who remarked: ‘they do say there be a witch in it and if you let un out there it be a peck o’ trouble’. To the museum's knowledge, it has never been opened: people can contemplate whether they would dare. Visitors can then enter the exhibition, if they choose, by walking under a ladder and the museum will monitor how many are happy to tempt fate. 

Archangel Michael coral brooch, Italy, 1600–1800, 13.5 cm© Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The exhibition opens in the medieval cosmos, a place swarming with spirits and supernatural currents which affected everything from an individual’s health to an army’s triumph. In this precarious world where mass disease, death in childbirth and warfare were features of everyday life, magical interventions offered people a sense of control over their fate and a means of relieving anxieties. Magical enquiry also had intellectual respectability. By the end of the 14th century physicians in many countries were legally required to calculate the position of the moon before they performed operations. There were many well-known university magicians and astrologers including Oxford’s Elias Ashmole whose clients included Charles II. Perhaps the most famous magician in England was John Dee who advised Elizabeth I. A tool in his armoury, featured in the exhibition, was a beautiful purple crystal ball which was used to invoke a benevolent spirit or trap an evil one. He claimed the crystal was given to him by the angel Uriel in November 1582. 

John Dee’s purple crystal, said to have been given to him by the angel Uriel, Europe, 1582, Metal and quartz, 8.4 cm© Science Museum, London

Despite the risks (and clerical opprobrium), in times of stress and heightened emotion evidence of people resorting to magical intervention abounds. There was no subject more important than love, especially unrequited and frustrated love. Hundreds of magic rings, seals and brooches survive, engraved with mottos and lines from famous romances with words ranging from hope (‘Joy without end’) to warning (‘Desire no other’). They were intended to bind another person with an appeal to supernatural power. The ritual has been revived in recent years by couples attaching inscribed padlocks to city bridges and throwing the keys into the river. The inscriptions on locks from Leeds Centenary Bridge include ‘I wanna lock your love’, ‘LOCKED + SEALED’ and ‘Be Mine’. While in many cases a merely symbolic gesture, the outcry at the removal of locks, in spite of the obvious problems they cause for structural engineering, and authorities’ reluctance to simply destroy or dispose of them, suggests that people attach significant emotion to the ritual. The locks might be considered as modern magic objects. 

Gold locket in the form of a miniature padlock with the inscription ‘sauns repentir’ (‘without regret’), English or French, mid- to late-15th century, 1.3 cm x 1.8 cm© British Museum, London

At the centre of the exhibition is a selection of the many thousands of items that have been discovered concealed in homes to protect them against mundane and supernatural threats. Dead cats were deliberately entombed in wall cavities in acts of ‘sympathetic’ magic to chase away vermin. Old buildings are full of enigmatic marks and symbols which have magical meaning such as the round ‘hexafoils’ on a pair of 19th-century barn doors from Suffolk. Witchcraft was considered one of the greatest dangers and thousands of concealed objects have been found in homes around the country and abroad, the result of rituals conducted by people known as cunning-folk, the formidable foes of witches. Some remedies were simple: horseshoes placed above doors, iron thought to repel witches. Others are more complicated such as ‘witch bottles’ placed under hearths and thresholds, the vulnerable points of the house where a witch might gain access. They contained urine, small sharp objects and human hair and nail clippings, possibly stolen from the supposed witch. Pierced animal hearts found in chimneys were placed there, in the beating heart of the home, to punish the witches who dared endanger life. Concealed objects are most often found during modern renovations and are frequently reinterred during the course of the work – probably ‘just in case’. Many of the objects on display come from private collections and the lenders have expressed their wish to have them back as soon as the exhibition ends so they can be returned to their finding places. 

Oak calf-shed door marked with magical symbols to protect livestock, From Laxfield, Suffolk, 19th century, 183 x 94 cm, Private collection.

The exhibition closes with dramatic accounts of witch trials. Four-in-five suspects were women, many elderly dependents who made defenceless scapegoats. Methods of detection and punishment were cruel. The water ordeal or ‘swimming’ of a witch galvanized communities into initiating prosecutions. Margaret Moore’s is one of the saddest stories. She lived in Sutton-in-the-Isle, a village near Cambridge and had four children, three of whom had died. She confessed to a ‘witchfinder’ that she had made a pact with the devil, in exchange for her soul, to save her last surviving child. A magistrate recorded this ‘examination’ on 26 May 1647. An illiterate woman, Margaret signed with a crude mark. She repeated her confession in court and was hanged. 

The last person tried for witchcraft in Britain was Helen Duncan (1897–1956), a Scottish medium and spiritualist who claimed to be able to conjure spirits draped in ‘ectoplasm’ emitted from her body. This was proved to be cheesecloth which she swallowed and regurgitated, while her spirits were props – dolls and photographs cut out from magazines. In the 1930s she was denounced as a fraud and in 1944 prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 which forbade conjuring spirits. A six-month prison sentence made her a spiritualist martyr and led to the repeal of the Act in 1951. 

Helen Duncan’s ‘Ectoplasm’, c. 1939, Imitation silk© Cambridge University Library

Dr Xa Sturgis (AKA Magician, The Great Xa), Director of the Ashmolean, says: ‘Magic has always been a subject close to my heart and I’m thrilled that this exhibition takes such an imaginative and impactful approach to the subject. We may think that we’ve grown out of the magical belief of our forebears but SPELLBOUND makes clear that we all still think magically.’

Bull’s heart pierced with iron nails and thorns. Found in a chimney at Shutes Hill Farm, Somerset, date unknown, 13 x 9 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

Two Unicorn Horns, 13th–15th century, Narwhal tusks, longest tusk: 230 cm© New College, University of Oxford

Microcosmic Man, Germany, c. 1420, Manuscript, 27 x 46 x 42 cm© Wellcome Library, London.

Prognosticator used to calculate propitious bloodletting times according to the position of the moon, France, c.1500, Brass, 11.1 cm© Science Museum, London.

Georg Bartisch (1535–1607), Disease of the eyes caused by witchcraft, from Opthalmodouleia, Dresden, Germany, 1583, Ink on paper, 25 x 42 cm © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

The Apprehension and Confession of three notorious Witches, London, 1589, Paper pamphlet, bound in calfskin volume© Lambeth Palace Library

The magic mirror of Floren (or Floron), 16th century, Iron, 18.5 x 10.7 cm© Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Sword with rock crystal reliquary in its handle, Italy, 16th century with earlier rock crystal, 105.5 cm long© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

Salvator Rosa (1615–73), Witches at their Incantations, c. 1646, Oil on canvas, 72 x 132 cm© National Gallery, London

Matthew Hopkins, The Discovery of Witches, 1647, Leather-bound volume, 25 x 29.5 cm© The Provost and Fellows of The Queen’s College, University of Oxford.

Anonymous English artist, A Boy with Coral, c. 1670. Oil on canvas, 13.7 x 12.7 cm© Norfolk Museums Services, Strangers’ Hall.

Henry Fuseli (1741–1825), The Witch and the Mandrake, c. 1812. Graphite and chalk on paper, 8.7 x 6.6 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

A witch trapped in a bottle England, c. 1850. Glass, silver, cork and wax, 110 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

‘Ghirlanda’ made of feathers to cause death, Italy, 19th century. Bird feathers, bone and hair, 21.2 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

‘Witches’ ladder’. Found in the roof of a house in Wellington, Somerset, 19th century. Bird feather and string, 800 cm© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Belemnite (fossilised cuttlefish) catalogued as a ‘thunder-bolt’, England, 1870–1916, 8.3 x 1.9 cm© Southwark Heritage: Cuming Museum, Art Collection and Local History Library and Archive

‘Poppet’ of stuffed fabric in Edwardian-style black dress with stiletto through face, South Devon, England, 1909–13, 38 cm© The Museum of Wtchcraft and Magic, Boscastle

Lot 114. A rare inscribed blue-glazed dish, 17th century. Diameter 5 3/4  in., 14.7 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

the gently rounded sides rising from a recessed base, covered overall with a thick deep blue glaze suffused with a subtle network of fine dark crackles, the rim and base dressed in brown, later inscribed around the interior of the countersunk base with a poem eulogizing Guan wares from the Xiuneisi kiln, accompanied by an inscription reading Qianlong gengxu qinghe yuti ('composed by the Qianlong emperor in the fourth month of the cyclical year gengxu'), followed by a two-character seal reading guxiang ('scent of archaism'), wood stand (2) 

Provenance: Yamanaka & Co., Chicago, 1st November 1937.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Note: Compare a 17th century blue-glazed bowl, with a later-inscribed imperial poem composed by the Qianlong emperor in the second spring month of the bingshen cyclical year, corresponding to 1776, in the Percival David Collection, now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Stacey Pierson and Amy Barnes, A Collector's Vision: Ceramics for the Qianlong Emperor, London, 2002, pl. 86. 

A bowl of closely related form and size with a similar crackled blue glaze to the exterior but a celadon glaze to the interior, attributed to circa 1640-1650, is illustrated in Sir Michael Butler, Margaret Medley, and Stephen Little, Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, VA, 1990, pl. 73.

Lot 167. A fine green-enameled 'dragon' dish, Zhengde mark and period (1506-1521). Diameter 7 in., 17.8 cm. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

with shallow rounded sides supported on a short slightly tapered foot, the interior decorated with a central medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon writhing among stylized clouds, the head, scaly body and limbs finely incised, reserved on the biscuit and covered with green enamel, the claws and spikes picked out in green enamel over the glaze, all within a green circle repeated at the rim, the exterior incised with two five-clawed dragons striding above crested waves and rocks, similarly reserved on the biscuit and painted with a green enamel against the white ground, the base with a six-character reign in underglaze blue within a double ring. 

Provenance: Collection of Neil F. Phillips (1924-1997).
Collection of the Reach Family.
Eskenazi Ltd., London.
The Meiyintang Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9th October 2012, lot 21.

Exhibited: Chinese Art from the Reach Family Collection, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 1989, cat. no. 40.
Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d’Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 127.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 694.

Closely related dishes include one in the British Museum, London, published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls 8: 33-35; one in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections: A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-44; and another from the Leshantang Collection, published in The Leshantang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Taipei, 2005, pl. 18. See also a dish of this type, from collections of R.H.R. Palmer and Edward T. Chow, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Polychrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, London, 1950, cat. no. 77, sold in our London rooms, 27th November 1962, lot 18 and our Hong Kong rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 37; a second dish from the Edward T. Chow collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 447; and a dish from the British Rail Pension Fund sold four times in our rooms, in London, 13th December 1966, lot 73; 1st July 1969, lot 149; and 17th November 1970, lot 76, and in Hong Kong, 16th May 1989, lot 27.

Lot 168. A finely painted blue and white 'Dragon and Phoenix' garlic-mouth bottle vase, Wanli mark and period (1573-1619). Height 17 1/8  in., 43.5 cm. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

sturdily potted, the pear-shaped body supported on a short tapered foot, rising to a tall neck with a garlic-head mouth and upright mouth rim, the body boldly painted in deep tones of cobalt-blue with two sinuous five-clawed dragons each in pursuit of a 'flaming pearl' between two phoenix in flight, all amidst a composite floral scroll and above bands of overlapping upright lappets and ruyi heads at the foot, and below a border of keyfrets at the shoulder, the slightly waisted neck painted with meandering floral scroll with 'auspicious emblems', with bands of stylized pendent ruyi and cloud scroll encircling the mouth, the six-character mark inscribed in a horizontal line within a rectangular cartouche at the rim. . 

Provenance: English Private Collection, acquired between 1910-20. 
S. Marchant & Son, London.

Exhibited: Recent Acquisitions, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2005, cat. no. 6. 
Ming Porcelain, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2009, cat. no. 33.

Note: Garlic-mouth vases of this distinctive form are outstanding among the larger Wanli wares and the treatment of their horizontal bands varies. Of this group of vases, the present type is particularly rare for the undecorated band at the mouth. Only one other closely related example appears to be known, sold in these rooms, 7th December 1983, lot 301, again in our London rooms, 13th December 1988, lot 169, and a third time in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd May 2000, lot 659.

Two similar vases of slightly larger size, but with tasseled pendants encircling the mouth, were sold in our London rooms, the first, from the Hay Collection, 25th June 1946, lot 24, and the second, 21st June 1983, lot 249; and another was sold at Christie’s London, 27th November 1967, lot 42. Compare also larger vases decorated with the dragon and phoenix design, but with a lotus scroll on the neck and bordered by various design bands, such as one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-74; two sold in these rooms, one, with a reduced rim, from the collection of Dr. Hsi Hai Chang, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Chinese Republic, 23rd-24th May 1974, lot 352, and the other, 15th March 2015, lot 11; and a fourth vase sold at Christie’s New York, 28th March 1996, lot 343, and published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, pt. 1, London, 2010, pl. 1697.

Vases of this type can also be found painted in the wucai palette; see one formerly in the Lindley-Scott Collection and later sold in our London rooms, 4th July 1945, lot 80, included in Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1988, pl. 187; another in the Chang Foundation Collection published in James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 110; and a third sold in our Los Angeles rooms, 2nd November 1981, lot 304. 

Lot 169. A rare yellow-glazed bowl, Wanli mark and period (1573-1619). Diameter 6 5/8  in., 16.9 cm. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

with shallow rounded sides rising from a short foot ring to a gently flared rim, covered overall with a rich egg yolk-yellow glaze, the white-glazed base with the six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double ring, Japanese box (3). 

Provenance: Japanese Private Collection. 
Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2005, lot 1461.

Note: A slightly larger yellow-glazed bowl with a Wanli reign mark and of the period is in the Percival David Foundation included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares, Section 6, London, 1989, cat. no. 543. See also a bowl from the W.A. Evill Collection and included in the exhibition Monochrome Porcelains, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1948, cat. no. 182, sold in our London rooms, 30th November 1965, lot 53.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 12 sept. 2018, 10:30 AM

Lot 170. A wucai'garden' circular box and cover, Wanli mark and period (1573-1619). Diameter 9 3/8  in., 23.8 cm. Estimate 25,000 — 35,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 171. A blue and white 'Cranes' box and cover, Wanli mark and period (1573-1619). Diameter 11 in., 28 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 172. A large boldly enameled wucaizun-shaped vase, Wanli mark and period (1573-1619). Height 27 in., 68.6 cm. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 174. A slip-decorated brown-glazed 'Lotus pond'meiping, Ming dynasty, Wanli period (1573-1619). Height 10 1/4  in., 26 . Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 173. An aubergine and yellow enameled square 'phoenix' bowl, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566). Width 6 1/2  in., 16.5 cm . Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 175. A pair of blue and white 'windswept'meiping, Ming dynasty, 15th century, Interregnum period (1436-1464). Height of taller 11 1/2  in., 29.2 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 176. A rare blue and white 'Rosette' moonflask, Ming dynasty, Yongle period (1403-1424). Height 10 3/8  in., 26.3 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Lot 219. A large purple-splashed lavender-glazed 'Jun' narcissus bowl, Early Ming dynasty. Diameter 9 1/2  in., 24 cm. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

Gerhard Richter, Schädel (Skull). Oil on canvas, 31½ x 25 3/5 in. (80 x 65cms). Painted in 1983. Estimate on request. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.

COPENHAGEN.- The National Gallery of Denmark is presenting a large-scale retrospective featuring one of Denmark’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists: Danh Vo. The exhibition at SMK is the result of a unique collaboration with The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. 

Full-scale replicas of the folds of the Statue of Liberty’s robes, a chandelier that has witnessed major turning points in history, and letters from a warring and ballet-loving Henry Kissinger. 

This autumn, SMK presents the largest exhibition ever presented in Denmark featuring the work of Danish-Vietnamese artist Danh Vo (b. 1975). More than 75 works of art, including several entirely new works produced especially for SMK, fill the museum’s exhibition rooms. At the same time Vo also takes over the museum’s Sculpture Street to present a very special project. 

In his art, Vo works with existing and found materials such as a classical marble sculptures, a lavish watch, a worn-out refrigerator, personal letters and historical photographs, deconstructing and combining these objects to create new works with new meaning. He often uses his personal history as the starting point for discussing universal themes such as migration, globalisation and desire. 

Danh Vo, 08:03:51, 28.05., 2009. SMK. Photo: Nick Ash

From 5th Avenue to Sølvgade 
The exhibition Danh Vo –Take My Breath Away is created in collaboration with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, which presented the first version of this exhibition in the museum’s iconic rotunda this spring. For the SMK show, Vo has developed entirely new settings for the presentation of his works – including large-scale Chinese pavilions made of wood and an original pink food truck, which has also been brought in from China. 

For his display in the Sculpture Street, Vo has chosen a selection of classical sculptures from the Royal Cast Collection, combining them with circular daybeds upholstered in original fabrics by the noted textile company Kvadrat as well as with Akari paper lamps and herb beds grown in collaboration with the museum café, Kafeteria, which he took part in designing earlier this year.

Danh Vo and SMK 
SMK has followed Danh Vo ever since the early beginnings of his career, making this his third exhibition at the museum. A crucially important contemporary artist, Vo is particularly interesting to SMK because his art delves into cultural, aesthetic and political aspects of the past, reflecting current themes and issues in history. This approach closely resembles how SMK, being a national gallery that houses art from the fourteenth century to the present day, works with the past and present and all their mutual interactions under the same roof. 

Danh (pronounced ya:n) Vo was born in Vietnam in 1975, but arrived in Denmark at the age of four. He and his family fled Vietnam on a boat built by Vo’s father. Hoping to reach the USA, the family was picked up by a Mærsk vessel in the Pacific Ocean and ended up in Denmark. 

Vo is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Städelschule in Frankfurt. 

In 2012 he received the Hugo Boss Prize, an international art award. 

Vo has presented solo shows across the world, including at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofìa, Madrid (2015-16); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2015) and Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2014–15). In 2015 he represented Denmark at the Venice Biennial. 

In May, Observer.com listed Vo as one of the artists who will change the world in 2018."

Danh Vo, Dress, 2008. Color print on paper. 85 x 40 x 4 cm. Art Collection EFG Private Banking.

© Sotheby's.

There are a handful of collectors in the world of Chinese art that are inextricably associated with works of exceptional quality. Stephen Junkunc, III, (1905–1978) is among these luminaries. At its height, the Junkunc collection numbered over 2,000 examples of exceptional Chinese porcelain, jade, bronzes, paintings and Buddhist sculptures.  

Lot 103. A peachbloom-glazed brushwasher, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). Diameter 4 5/8  in., 11.7 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

delicately potted of compressed circular form, supported on a shallow tapered foot, the incurved, rounded sides covered with a rich raspberry-red glaze with copper-red flecks, the interior and base left white, the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).

Note: Notoriously difficult to achieve due to the temperamental nature of the copper pigment, the attractive 'peachbloom' glaze is only found on a small group of vessels for the scholar's table and is one of the most iconic groups of porcelain created under the Kangxi emperor. Recent research by Peter Lam and other leading scholars indicates that the famous 'peachbloom' group was produced during the early years of the Kangxi period under the supervision of the skilled Zang Yingxuan, who was sent to Jingdezhen in 1681 to oversee the rebuilding of the kilns and serve as imperial supervisor. To manage the fugitive copper-lime pigment, scholars believe that it was sprayed via a long bamboo tube onto a layer of transparent glaze and then fixed with another layer, so that the pigment is suspended within two layers of clear glaze. The spotted green flecking, referred to as pingguo qing 'apple green', is possible through a technique using varied concentrations of copper that, when exposed during firing, oxidize to form green spots and modulation.

Examples of this celebrated type of peachbloom brush washer are represented in many of the world's finest museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Palace Museum, Beijing, and the Sir Percival David Collection at the British Museum, London. A closely related washer with strikingly similar coloration sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 169; another, formerly in the collection of Emily Trevor, sold at Christie's New York, 19th September 2007, lot 341; a third, formerly in the collection of Edward T. Chow sold at Christie's New York, 19th March 2008, lot 636; another from the Edward T. Chow Collection sold thrice with us, most recently in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2009, lot 1657; and a further example, from the Jie Rui Tang Collection, sold in these rooms, 20th March 2018, lot 318.

Lot 112. A rare white-glazed 'beehive' waterpot, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). Diameter 5 1/8  in., 13cm. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

of classic 'taibai zun' form, the domed hemispherical body with rounded sides tapering to a short waisted neck, the exterior finely molded and carved with three coiled chilong medallions, the exterior applied with an even milky-white glaze, the countersunk base with a three-column six-character reign mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Frank Caro, New York, 9th January 1964.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).  

Note: Beehive waterpots of this shape are well-known with peachbloom glazes but those covered in other monochrome glazes were produced in smaller numbers. A closely related waterpot in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 228; one from the Qing Court Collection, is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 111; another in the Koger Collection, illustrated in J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl. 139, was sold in our London rooms, 16th May 2012, lot 171; another from the Riesco Collection, illustrated in Edgar E. Bluett, The Riesco Collection of Old Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. 61 (right), was sold in our London rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 430; and a fifth example exhibited on loan at Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, from the collection of Mrs Yale Kneeland, was sold in our New York rooms, 1st June 1994, lot 371, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 26th April 1999, lot 507. Compare also a similar waterpot sold twice in our Hong Kong rooms, 20th November 1984, lot 471, and again, 5th April 2017, lot 3607.

Lot 113. An exceptionally rare and fine white-glazed 'lingzhi' cup, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735). Diameter 1 3/4  in., 4.4 cm. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

delicately potted, the steep, tapering sides rising to a slightly flaring rim, the exterior applied with exquisitely incised white-slip decoration of a delicately meandering stem issuing leafy sprays and four lingzhi heads wreathed by curling leaves, the recessed base inscribed with a six-character mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).  

Note: Small cups of this type are extremely rare, this form more often having been decorated with anhua incised dragons or covered in lemon yellow or other enamels. For a dragon-decorated cup in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection], Beijing, 2005, vol. I, part 2, pl. 8. See also a slightly larger pair of undecorated white cups from the Meiyintang Collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 26.

BIRMINGHAM, AL.- The Birmingham Museum of Art officially repatriated a stolen work of art to the nation of India in a formal ceremony that took place in New York City on the evening of September 4. Dr. Graham Boettcher, R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art, represented the BMA at the ceremony which was hosted by the Consulate General of India in New York, and attended by Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty. The BMA returned a stone sculpture of the Hindu deity, Shiva, nearly three years after it was discovered that the work was stolen out of India as a part of a $100 million international smuggling racket organized by art dealer Subhash Kapoor. 

“The Birmingham Museum of Art follows a strict code of ethics to ensure that objects acquired for our collection are not among those stolen from protected sites of religious and/or cultural significance,” says Boettcher. “As soon as we learned of the unlawful provenance of this sculpture, we set out to return it to the nation and people of India. It is unquestionably the right thing to do and we are happy to know this important cultural treasure will soon be in its rightful home.” 

The Art Fund of Birmingham, Inc.—a non-profit corporation with a mission to support the Birmingham Museum of Art—purchased the sculpture, titled Lingodhbhavamurti (Shiva Manifesting within the Linga of Flames), in 2008 from New York art dealer Subhash Kapoor of Art of the Past gallery, and placed it on loan to the BMA, where it remained on view until its return following discovery that the work had been looted from India.The nearly four-foot tall stone sculpture depicts a pillar of fire splitting open to reveal the god Shiva in all his glory, witnessed by the deities Brahma (in the form of a goose) and Vishnu (as a boar) posed above and below. With ancient origins that date the work to the Chola dynasty, the sculpture was created around 1150 CE.

Through his galleries, Kapoor sold antiquities to reputable museums around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2011, Kapoor was extradited to India to face charges over the multimillion dollar international antiquities looting operation through which he surreptitiously sold illegally-acquired artifacts to unsuspecting buyers using falsified paperwork. The BMA was contacted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2015 with compelling evidence that the work in its collection was smuggled illegally out of India. Following this revelation, the BMA began making arrangements for repatriation and, in the meantime, informed Museum patrons of the circumstances by posting an amended label alongside the object’s display. 

The work was formally deaccessioned in August of this year in keeping with the principles outlined by its collections policy with the determination that the work was imported under violation of state, federal, or foreign laws. The sculpture was then shipped to New York whereupon it was processed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as evidence in the case against Subhash Kapoor. Shortly after the ceremony, the sculpture will make its final journey home to India.

Lot 5. A superbly carved and extremely large limestone head of Buddha, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 27 1/2  in., 70 cm. Estimate: 2,000,000-3,000,000 USD. © Sotheby's 

NEW-YORK. - There are a handful of collectors in the world of Chinese art that are inextricably associated with works of exceptional quality. Stephen Junkunc, III, (d. 1978) is among these luminaries. Discover more about this inspiring collector ahead of Sotheby's Asia Week 2018.

today the name of Junkunc conjures a period during which some of the greatest Chinese treasures came to America and today indicates one of the most important, and indeed desirable, provenances for Chinese art. Formed in America in the mid-20th century, the Junkunc Collection at its height numbered over 2,000 examples of exceptional Chinese porcelain, jade, bronzes, paintings and Buddhist sculptures; serving as a testament to a period of unprecedented wealth of Chinese material available in the West, as well Junkunc's astounding intellectual curiosity, coupled with the means and savvy to acquire internationally from the leading dealers in the field.

Stephen Junkunc III, photographied with his collection, featured in the 7 september 1952 edition of the Chicago Tribune. 

Stephen Junkunc, III was born in Budapest, Hungary around 1905, and emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, as a young child, where his father Stephen Junkunc, II, a tool-and-die maker, founded General Machinery & Manufacturing Company in 1918. The company specialized in the manufacture of knife-edge fuel nozzle heads. With the outbreak of World War II, General Machinery converted its shop for the war effort and began manufacturing various aircraft parts, including B-29 hydraulic spools on behalf of Ford Motor Company.

Outside of his familial business commitments, Stephen Junkunc, III, spent his free time learning about Chinese art. A voracious reader with an unabated hunger for knowledge, he studied the Chinese language and kept extensive libraries of Chinese art reference books and auction catalogues at both his home and office. These were instrumental to his collecting – his first acquisitions were in the early 1930s, apparently after happening upon a book on Chinese art.

It is perhaps no coincidence that Junkunc’s initial collecting activity largely coincided with the establishment of the Chicago branch of the reputable Japanese dealers Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., who opened a gallery at 846 North Michigan Boulevard in 1928. Many of Junkunc’s early purchases came from Yamanaka, and before long, he was buying directly from the leading London dealers specializing in Chinese art: Bluett & Sons, W. Dickinson & Sons, H.R.N. Norton and, of course, John Sparks, seeking fine examples of porcelain for his collection. Indeed the Junkunc Collection today ranks among the greatest assemblages of porcelain ever formed in the West. The collection included two examples of the fabled Ru ware, of which only 87 examples in the world are known. These two dishes represented two of the only seven examples of Ru ware to have been offered at auction since the 1940s. One of the Ru dishes, purchased from C.T. Loo in 1941, set a new world record when it sold at auction for $1.6 million in New York in 1992, and is today in the esteemed collection of Au Bak Ling.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the inventories of Yamanaka’s galleries in America fell into the custody of the United States government, which dissolved the company, seizing and eventually selling off much of its merchandise through auctions held at the Galleries in New York in May and June 1944. This same year Hisazo Nagatani, the former manager of Yamanaka’s Chicago gallery, established himself as an independent dealer in Chicago under the company name Nagatani Inc. Nagatani remained an important dealer for Junkunc over three decades, supplying by far the majority of the works in the Junkunc Collection.

Throughout the 1940s, Junkunc broadened his collecting interests to focus on earlier objects, including Song to Ming ceramics, archaic bronzes and – crucially – Buddhist sculpture. In addition to Nagatani, he purchased extensively from auction, particularly from Parke-Bernet, Tonying & Company and C.T. Loo, in New York.

By the early 1950s, Junkunc had amassed an impressive collection of Chinese works of art which by then was largely securely stored in the museum-like environs of a subterranean bomb shelter in the grounds of his home in Oak Park, Illinois. In a 1952 profile in the Chicago Tribune, the bunker is described as storing a ‘priceless hoard’, with "shelves weighted with priceless pieces of Chinese art, prizes produced through a span of centuries. A record of a nation in tapestry, bronze, jade, pottery, robes, and lacquer":

Junkunc sits spider-like in the center of a web of agents scattered throughout the world. His escapades in procuring some objects have called for the suavity of a diplomat, the daring of an international spy, and the speed of a distance runner. Cloaked in intrigue and secrecy, and spiced by competition, collecting oriental art is no role of a Milquetoast. 
–Chicago Tribune, 7 September 1952

Stephen Junkunc, III, pictured with lot 15 in Junkunc: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture (12 september, New York) illustrated in the 7 september 1952 edition of the Chicago Tribune.

The 1950s and 1960s witnessed perhaps the most fervent period of buying activity for Stephen Junkunc, III, when he continued to make large acquisitions from Nagatani and Frank Caro, the successor of C.T. Loo, as well as from Alice Boney and Warren E. Cox, New York, and Barling of Mount Street Ltd., London. His purchases during this decade, which sometimes involved acquiring up to 50 works at a time, appear to have concentrated primarily on early material, including a number of acquisitions of Buddhist sculpture, which consistently ranked among his most expensive purchases. Junkunc continued purchasing and studying Chinese art until his death in 1978, whereupon the collection passed to his son Stephen Junkunc, IV, and has remained in the family collection since.

Not only a fervent collector, Stephen Junkunc, III, was also an avid museum supporter. Throughout his life he worked closely with and actively supported the curators at American museums. He cultivated a particularly long-standing relationship with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC), frequently loaning works from his collection to exhibitions through the 1940–60s. Works from the Junkunc Collection were also loaned to the seminal Ming Blue and White exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, which traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1949, and to the Arts of the T’ang exhibition of 1956, at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. Junkunc’s generosity towards American museums also extended towards bequests, with gifts from his collection now housed in the Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin, and the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Florida, near his Coral Gables summer home.

During Asia Week 2018 property from the esteemed Junkunc Collection will be featured in Junckunc: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture (12 September, New York), Important Chinese Art (12 September, New York), Fine Classical Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy (13 September, New York) and Saturday at Sotheby’s: Asian Art (15 September, New York).

Lot 5. A superbly carved and extremely large limestone head of Buddha, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 27 1/2  in., 70 cm. Estimate: 2,000,000-3,000,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

the deity carved with a full face, with high arched brows above hooded eyes, half-closed in a sublimely serene countenance, with rounded full cheeks, the lips full and bowed, the face framed by tightly coiled hair above the smooth forehead and over the ushnisha, mounted on a high pedestal (2).

Provenance: Tonying & Company, Inc. 
Parke-Bernet Galleries, 30th-31st March 1955, lot 301. 
Collection of Jay C. Leff (1925-2000).
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978). 

Monumentality: A Magnificent and Large Tang Head of Buddha
Regina Krahl

Monumentality, as expressed in monumental size, is not an obvious, indispensable trait of religious imagery. It was introduced to China by the early imperial patrons of Buddhism, the Northern Wei (386-534) ruling family, and remained an objective for imperial and other ambitious donors until the Tang dynasty (618-907). This magnificent head is, however, not only remarkable for its extraordinary size, but equally for its exquisite soft, even features and its distinctly youthful expression.

As early as the 3rd century Chinese monks visited sacred places abroad, and introduced to China the cave temple tradition of India, Afghanistan and Central Asia that they had encountered themselves or heard about during their travels. Bamiyan, northwest of Kabul, with its 6th century Buddhas of 35 and 53 m height, respectively, was only the most ambitious of such monumental stone carvings.

In China, Buddhist adepts, such as the monk Faguo, who was invited to the Northern Wei court by the founder of the dynasty, Daowu (r. 386-409) and became an influential advisor, supported imperial interest in their religion and at the same time justified their service for a worldly monarch by postulating that the emperor was the living Buddha. Paying homage to the emperor thus meant venerating the Buddha. The monk Tanyao, who held the highest clerical office and was instrumental in a revival of Buddhism after a brief purge, oversaw the first grand cave temple commission by the imperial house, five caves constructed between 460 and 465 at Yungang in Shanxi province, whose five main Buddha figures were conceived to represent the current ruler, the young emperor Wencheng (r. 452-465) himself, and his four predecessors on the throne. The largest, in Cave 20, is a seated figure of the founding emperor, Daowu, measuring 13.7 m in height.

Massive Buddha figures continued to be carved into the rock also at other important sites: At Longmen, for example, the massive seated Vairocana Buddha of the Fengxiansi Cave, built between 672 and 675, measures some 17 m; but even smaller cave temple projects, such as Gongxian in Henan or Tianlongshan in Shanxi, still boast highly impressive figures, such as a standing Buddha of 5.3 m and a seated one of 8 m, respectively.

Such monumental Buddha figures must have inspired free-standing stone sculptures. Surprisingly large figures were commissioned also for temples, such as the nearly 6 m high Sui dynasty (581-618) Buddha Amithabha, now in the British Museum, London, which in 585 was dedicated by inscription to the Chongguang Temple in Hancui village, Hebei province. Free-standing Buddhist sculptures were even carved – more in line with Confucian ideals – as offerings to dead parents, in fulfillment of filial piety. While the monumental rock sculptures are extraordinary feats of craftsmanship, free-standing figures could receive a much greater level of attention to detail.

The present head with its fine features and youthful appearance, its fleshy lips recessed into rounded cheeks, its cheek bones only subtly indicated, and its head covered with even curls of hair, exudes a strong notion of calm and serenity and stands in the classic tradition of Tang Buddhist imagery. Comparable Tang heads that are extant are generally much smaller, but in addition differ in their physique, typically showing a more plump, squared face. Such heads, which suggest an older deity, can be seen, for example, on seated Buddha figures from the Longmen Caves Research Institute, attributed to the reign of the Empress Wu (r. 690-705) in the early 8th century, included in the exhibition Ryūmon sekkutsu/Longmen Caves, The Miho Museum, Shigaraki, 2001, cat. nos 29 and 43, one illustrated again, together with a third related figure, in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], vol. 11, Shanghai, 1988, pls 195 and 196. A similar head is also in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, cat. no. 109.

A rather closer comparison can be drawn, however, to a rare stylistic predecessor, a large (nearly 3 m high) free-standing Buddha figure of the Northern Qi period (550-577) in the Nezu Museum of Fine Arts, Tokyo (fig. 2). The head of that figure, which is over-proportionally large in relation to a body that is further raised on a pedestal, is probably only slightly smaller in size than the present head. The Nezu Buddha has very similar fine features, with the eyes opened only to a narrow, elegantly curved slit, the sharply defined brows forming a triangle above the well-formed nose, and the full lips recessed into the fleshy cheeks. The face of the Nezu figure suggests the ever so faint smile characteristic of that period; on the present head, the lips are more pursed, forming a slight pout, as is more typical of the early Tang, the brows meet the nose at a steeper angle, and the chin is more pointed. While this head clearly seems to be somewhat later in date, it could be related to the Nezu sculpture in its place of manufacture, which unfortunately, we do not know.

A large marble free-standing standing Buddha, Northern Qi dynasty© The Nezu Museum

Sotheby's. Junkunc: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, New York, 12 Sep 2018, 10:00 AM

Lot 8. An exceptional large limestone figure of a Bodhisattva, Tang dynasty (618-907). Height 39 1/2  in., 100 cm. Estimate: 1,500,000 — 2,500,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

 carved in an elegantly eased standing posture with the proper right hand raised, holding vestiges of a kalasa, the left hand lowered and lightly lifting a draped sash and garments, the hair gathered high in a neatly spiraled topknot encircled by a diadem and falling down the back in coiled locks, the full face carved with arched brows sweeping above gently opened almond eyes, the plump lips carved with a clearly defined bowed outline and painted a bright red, with three incised lines to the neck above a necklace of geometric pendants, a sash swept diagonally over the bare chest and naturalistically fleshy torso, a diaphanous dhoti masterfully carved over the legs in cascading folds following the attitude of the hips and the slightly bent leg, with traces of red, blue, green, and gilt pigments, supported on an octagonal base of lotus petals over a waist of rectangular panels above a further tier of petals.

Provenance: Collection of Mrs. Christian R. Holmes (1871–1941).
Parke-Bernet Galleries New York, 15th-18th April 1942, lot 386.
Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, 1st November 1962.
Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, (d. 1978).

The Parke-Bernet Galleries auction catalogue illustration for the present lot, 15th-18th April 1942, lot 386.

Grace and Beauty: An Exceptional Tang Bodhisattva
Regina Krahl

This figure of a bodhisattva is remarkable for its graceful pose, naturalistic, yet genderless physique, elegant flowing skirt and scarves, and voluminous flower-decorated hair style. It is a classic example of China’s Buddhist stone carving from the period that saw perhaps the greatest flowering of China’s plastic arts, the High Tang period under Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-755).

The carving of Buddhist stone sculptures in China was initiated on a grand scale through the patronage of the Northern Wei (386-534) imperial family, who commissioned the construction of rock caves, first at Yungang in Shanxi in the 5th, and soon after at Longmen and Gongxian, both in Henan province, in the early 6th century. The monumental Buddhist sculpture projects realized in these cave temples, created under court patronage by the greatest sculptors of the day, provided an artistic language that dominated the art of Chinese sculpture as a whole and inspired also the production of many free-standing figures and steles.

As the foreign (Tuoba) ruling clan of the Wei was intent on displaying their legitimacy on the Chinese throne, and the early massive Buddha figures were designed to represent Wei rulers of the past and the present, the sculptures they commissioned were not meant to emphasize the foreignness either of the religion or the ruling house. The styles of these early Buddhist images therefore did not follow West or Central Asian models, but the artisans were searching to develop an independent Chinese style. In doing so, they concentrated on rendering the solemn spiritual message rather than in conveying a human side of the deity figures they created. Sculptures thus became rather formal and stylized, often completely disregarding the shape of the body under the garments. The deities thus rendered appeared powerful and distant rather than benevolent and approachable.

A change of attitude is noticeable in the Northern Qi period (550-577), when sculptors were more free to adopt Indian and Central Asian influences. At the Xiangtangshan Caves in Hebei, for example, bodhisattvas of that period are depicted standing with their feet splayed, one heel slightly raised from the ground (Angela Falco Howard et al., Chinese Sculpture, New Haven and London, 2006, pls 3.78 and 3.79). Such more relaxed, if somewhat contrived, poses are characteristic of the iconography manifested earlier in Central Asian caves, which could have been transferred via portable paintings on a paper or textile ground, or small wooden figures or shrines. Similar poses can be seen, for example, in the wall paintings at Kucha in Xinjiang, where bodhisattva figures still show distinctly Western Asian facial features; or on Northern Wei stucco, or clay, sculptures at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang in Gansu (Zhongguo meishu quanji. Huihua bian [Complete series on Chinese art. Paintings section], vol. 16, Beijing, 1989, pls 184 and 195; and Zhongguo shiku. Dunhuang Mogao ku [Chinese rock caves. The Mogao caves of Dunhuang], Beijing, 1982, vol. 1, pls 20, 21, 23).

In the early Tang (618-907) we begin to see a more naturalistic approach to the depiction of Buddhist deities, for example in late 7th century caves at Longmen, constructed under Empress Wu (624-705), where bodhisattvas are already rendered as more human figures, standing with a slight swerve to the body and performing naturalistic gestures (Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu bian [Complete series on Chinese art: Sculpture section], vol. 11, Shanghai, 1988, pl. 183 and  Ryūmon sekkutsu/Longmen Caves, exhibition catalogue, The Miho Museum, n.p., 2001, p. 62).

The full transformation towards a ravishingly beautiful, sensuous naturalism in Buddhist imagery, where the religious message is delivered through a very accessible form of human beauty did, however, only materialize in the High Tang period. This period marks the fully matured style of Buddhist stone sculpture, a style very similarly manifested also in gilt bronze, clay and wood. This period unquestionably marks one of the finest eras of China’s sculptural tradition, which brought forth some of China’s most impressive figurative masterpieces.

The Tang dynasty saw an unequalled flowering of the Buddhist doctrine, which exerted a major influence on all strata of Chinese society right up to the court. In spite of repeated controversies that unfolded around the growing popularity of this religion and the explosion in the number of monasteries – investiture as a monk could be useful for saving taxes – Buddhism continued to grow in popularity until the radical prosecution of Buddhists in the 840s, but even this setback appears to have been of only short duration.

Emperor Xuanzong himself had a much closer affinity to Daoism than Buddhism and undertook repeated efforts to curtail the expansion of the latter religion, although Esoteric Buddhism with its mystical practices did exert a strong fascination on him, as on the Tang aristocracy in general. Famous Tantric masters from India worked in the capital under imperial patronage and performed rituals and magic feats for the emperor. Imperial sculpture commissions do not seem to have ceased either, as is suggested by a hoard of exquisite white marble sculptures from this period, discovered at the ruins of the Anguo Temple, an edifice constructed in 710 next to the imperial palace complex Daminggong in the Tang capital, Chang’an. As an important place of worship of the zhenyan (‘true word’) school of Esoteric Buddhism, it is unlikely that this temple and its grand white marble sculptures with details in gilding, could have been produced without patronage from the imperial family.

In such times of a more restrained imperial support of the Buddhist cause, sculptors may, however, also have felt the need to appeal to private donors and thus to accentuate an attractive physical appearance of Buddhist deities. The present figure with its deliberate indication of a well-formed, youthful, swaying body, the weight clearly shifted to one leg, the fleshy yet compact torso exposed and the legs clearly visible under a thin, clinging garment, is a prime example of High Tang Buddhist imagery in stone. While the figure is depicted as genderless and not specifically identified as the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, the opulent coiffure suggests a female deity and the benevolent face clearly evokes the 'Bodhisattva of Compassion', better known as the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin.

Although this sculpture stands firmly in the stylistic context of its period, very few closely related works appear to have survived. Even if similarities with contemporary cave sculptures found in situ are obvious, since their style dominated the arts and crafts of the period, variations of facial expression, jewelry and dress are to be expected on free-standing sculptures produced by locally working craftsmen. Bodhisattva figures depicted in a comparable manner can be seen, for example, at the Tianlongshan Caves near Taiyuan in Shanxi, one of the smaller ensembles of rock carvings in north China, with only twenty-one caves. Carving here continued from the end of the Northern Wei right through to the Tang. The faces carved in the somewhat coarse stone are characterized by particularly soft features, and some caves are renowned for their flamboyant Tang carvings in the fully matured Chinese carving style of the High Tang period. Compare three bodhisattva figures from Tianlongshan, one in situ, illustrated in Tianlongshan shiku [Tianlongshan rock caves], Beijing, 2003, pl. 124]; another in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (37.329) (fig. 1); and the third, lacking its head, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (René-Yvon Lefebvre d’Argencé, ed., Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1974, pl. 108). The Tianlongshan bodhisattvas are, however, characterized by a more voluptuous roundness of the faces as well as the bodies.

A Tang dynasty bodhisattva from the Tianlongshan caves, in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photograph © 2018 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In its general pose and indication of physique the present sculpture can also be compared to two bodhisattva figures of similar date attributed to the Longmen Caves, both formerly also in the Junkunc Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September 1995, lots 301 and 302; the former illustrated in Osvald Sirén, Chinese Sculpture from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, London, 1925 (reprint Bangkok, 1998), pl. 464, and sold again Christie's New York, 16th September 1999, lot 18; the latter previously sold at Sotheby’s London, 22nd November 1946, lot 56. These Longmen figures, however, display a much more solid physique.

The prevalent carving style of the period reflected by this bodhisattva figure can equally be seen on steles, where two such figures are flanking a central Buddha; see, for example, Matsubara Saburō, Chūgoku Bukkyō chōkoku shiron [Historical survey of Chinese Buddhist sculpture], Tokyo, 1995, vol. 3, particularly pls 656b, 658b, 660b, 663a, and 670, for examples from the High Tang and slightly earlier.

This sculpture was once in the collection of Bettie F. Holmes, better known as Mrs. Christian Holmes (1871-1941) (fig.2), a noted American collector and generous philanthropist. Her collection included Chinese archaic bronzes, early jades, Tang gold and silver, ceramics of various periods, Buddhist sculptures in gilt bronze and stone, and other works of art, but also Japanese, Siamese, Indian, Persian and Egyptian antiquities. She was one of only four American lenders to have sent pieces to the Ausstellung chinesischer Kunst at the Preußische Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1929; and she contributed nearly two dozen objects to the International Exhibition of Chinese Art at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, the most important exhibition of Chinese art ever held. Her collection was displayed among fine English and French furniture at her residence, ‘The Chimneys’, a mansion at Sands Point on Long Island, New York. After her husband’s death, she established a hospital and a charitable foundation in his memory and became a major donor to the Philharmonic Symphony Society and the Metropolitan Opera.

Mrs. Christian Holmes (1871-1941), previous owner of the present lot, Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images