
Jing Wen
Cataloguer
This auction has ended. View lot details
Sold for €8,287.50 inc. premium
Our Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialist
Cataloguer

Global Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

International Director

International Specialist

Head of Sale, Specialist
A GOLD AND SILVER DAMASCENED IRON RITUAL SPEAR HEAD
EASTERN TIBET, DERGE, CIRCA 16TH CENTURY
藏東 更慶鎮 約十六世紀 鐵鋄金銀矛
This spear (Mdung Rtse) was an implement utilized by oracles, possibly for a ceremony or ritual. The blade has two flat sides with a medial ridge and rounded tip. Gold damascened decorations of flames are finely engraved into the blade. At the bottom of the spear is a circular rimmed base.
Stylistically, the flame motifs on the blades, compare with an example sold in Christie's, New York, 29 September 2020, lot 10 and an example in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2001.180) and Henss, Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet, Stuttgart, 2020, p. 217, nos. 272 and 273.
Published:
Deborah Ashencaen and Gennady Leonov, Visions of Perfect Worlds: Buddhist Art from the Himalayas, Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1999 p. 69, no. 39.
Provenance:
Spink & Son Ltd., London, 1999