A gilt-bronze figure of eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara

18th century

18th century
Finely cast standing with eight arms and eleven heads arranged in five tiers surmounted by one head with a wrathful expression topped by a small head of Amitabha Buddha, the principal hands held in anjalimudra, the others fanned out in various mudras and holding various attributes, the body adorned with elaborate jewellery and fluttering scarves, with a deer skin slung across one shoulder, stand attached.
29cm (11 3/8in) high.

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A similar gilt-bronze figure of an eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara, 18th century, is illustrated by U.von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 2008, pp.552-553, pl.158C. Another gilt-bronze figure of an eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara, 17th/18th century, is illustrated in Buddhist Images in Gilt Metal, Taipei, 1993, p.106, no.46. Two similar gilt-bronze figures of eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara, 18th century, were sold at Bonhams London, on 15 May 2014, lot 394 and 10 November 2016, lot 112.