China, 1644-1912. The Laughing Buddha characteristically depicted seated on his sack with strings of cash finely incised around the legs and shoulders, his beard and chest hair also incised, wearing a long flowing robe opening at the chest to reveal his outsized belly.
Condition: Good condition with old wear, traces of use and casting flaws. A pole or stick previously held in one hand is missing. Fine dark patina. Minimal scattered nicks and dents. Provenance: From the collection of Georg Weifert (1850-1937). Thence by descent in the same family. Weifert was a Serbo-Austrian industrialist and the first governor of the Federal Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.
Weight: 14.7 kg Dimensions: Width 40 cm
Cast on the underside with a four-character seal mark reading Shanying zhizao.
Auction result comparison: Compare with a slightly smaller, but gilt bronze figure of Budai, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 29 May 2019, lot 3181, for HKD $625,000.