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A GOLD-FOIL APPLIED ROCK CRYSTAL RELIQUARY BOX AND COVER, ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 1ST-3RD CENTURY
奥地利
06月27日 下午5点 开拍
拍品描述

Description

A GOLD-FOIL APPLIED ROCK CRYSTAL RELIQUARY BOX AND COVER, ANCIENT REGION OF GANDHARA, 1ST-3RD CENTURY

Finely carved from transparent rock crystal, the circular box with deep rounded sides supported on a short stepped foot with concave base and surmounted by a domed flush-fitting cover with knop finial, finely incised with horizontal line bands, and finely decorated to the exterior with flower heads and foliate bands in richly beaded gold foil, the knop further applied with a large flowerhead topped by a bee.

Provenance: The collection of The Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum. Institutional art collection in Belgium, acquired from the above. Dr. István Zelnik, President of the Hungarian South and Southeast Asian Research Institute, is a former high-ranking Hungarian diplomat who spent several decades in Southeast Asia, building the largest known private collection of Asian art in Europe.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Ancient wear, the gold with soil encrustations indicating a prolonged period of burial, minuscule dents, small nicks, minor losses. Some of the embellishments, though ancient, may be associated. The rock crystal with natural imperfections including fissures and inclusions, chips along the rim of the box, few cracks with associated small losses. The cover with an old repair to a section of the rim.
Alloy composition range: 68.19% gold, 24.75% silver, 6.59% copper, and 0.46% iron (the foliate bands to the body). 71.28% gold, 26.25% silver, 1.89% copper, and 0.57% iron (the large blossoms encircling the knop). The lot was tested by the Zelnik István Southeast Asian Gold Museum.

Weight: 579.2 g
Dimensions: Height 9.1 cm

Small in size, reliquaries such as the present lot were more commonly made of slate stone or metamorphic rock (schist), with examples of gold and rock crystal such as the present lot likely being perquisites of the elite. Considered sacred and venerable, relics were placed inside stupas to commemorate the demise of important Buddhist teachers. Buddha's relics have also been placed inside several such caskets. After cremation, bones, teeth and hair are saved and honored by erecting a stupa over it. In western Indian Buddhist cave temples and in the Gandhara region, many stupas in different shapes containing the holy relics of Buddhist teachers have been constructed or carved. Stupas represent the 'nirvana' of Buddha. Pious devotees would circumambulate them, remembering the passing of Buddha. The present work likely served as a reliquary deposited within a larger stupa or monument.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related Gandhara rock crystal stupa reliquary, 28 cm high, dated 1st-3rd century, in the Art Gallery of New South Whales, accession number 287.2007.a-j. Compare a related rock crystal reliquary excavated from Madhya Pradesh, 9 cm high, dated to the 1st century BC, in the Victoria & Albert Museum, accession number IM.223-1921. Compare a related stone reliquary box dated to the 1st century AD, 11.1 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 1987.142.143a, b.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 24 September 2020, lot 962
Price: USD 27,500 or approx. EUR 31,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A small rare rock crystal stupa, ancient region of Gandhara or Sri Lanka, 2nd-4th century
Expert remark: Note the size (10.8 cm).

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Zacke, Vienna, 17 October 2024, lot 177
Price: EUR 6,500 or approx. EUR 6,600 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A rock crystal and gold reliquary in the form of a stupa, ancient region of Gandhara, 1st-3rd century
Expert remark: Note the size (11.4 cm).

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价格信息

拍品估价:2,400 - 5,000 欧元 起拍价格:2,400 欧元  买家佣金: 35.00%

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Galerie Zacke
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