
Dora Tan
Head of Sale, Specialist
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Sold for HK$406,200 inc. premium
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Head of Sale, Specialist

International Director

International Specialist

Cataloguer
西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金寶劍柄
Cast in one piece, this hilt which once would have been connected to a blade, symbolizes wisdom and the severance of ties to spiritual and temporal ignorance. The decorative patterning in low relief, with a grip shaped as a leonine face, and the top crowned with a vajra, conveys its ceremonial function, one whose rituals are often associated with deities like Manjusri, Padmasambhava, and Palden Lhamo.
Compare with a closely related example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2017.161), and another in the Josette Schulamn Collection with a blade bearing a Nepalese inscription dedicated to Mahakala (see Nathalie Bazin et al., Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes du Vème Dalaï Lama (1617 – 1682), 2002, p. 146, no. 105).
Provenance:
Private California Collection, acquired in the 1980s