A RARE BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA Early Ming dynasty

A RARE BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA
Early Ming dynasty
Seated in vajrasana with twenty-one pairs of arms, each hand holding a ritual object and raised to the sides of the shoulders, the elongated uppermost hands held upwards above six heads of the deity arranged in tiers, decreasing in size from the main face, the pairs of hands held in anjali mudra at the chest, the bronze with dark patination throughout showing green and red pigments.
24in (60cm) high; 16 1/2in (42cm) width; 11in (28cm) deep
Footnotes:
明早期 罕珍青銅六首四十二臂菩薩坐像

Provenance:
Bertha Clark Thomas Asian Collection, by descendent within the family

來源：
Bertha Clark Thomas亞洲藝術藏品，後由家族繼承

Gilbert Maxie Thomas and Bertha Clark Thomas of Berkeley, California, lived in China in the early 1920s for seven years, when Mr. Thomas was on assignment in Shanghai as a consultant for California's PG&E. While living in China, the couple collected furniture, bronzes and porcelains.

A closely related Ming dynasty Tantric avalokiteshvara in the Nitta Collection is illustrated in The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1985, p. 208, p. 112.

A similar Tantric gilt bronze figure of avalokiteshvara was sold at Sotheby's Paris, 23 June 2016, lot 34. Another similar gilt bronze figure was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 October 2001, lot 514.