GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY

Details

A gilt schist reliquary box and cover
Gandhara, 2nd/3rd century
The box decorated with a horizontal band of plain and beaded rims, with a plain gilt surface below, carved with half-lotus petals, the cover similarly carved and topped by a floral knob, richly gilt all over
4 3/8 in. (11 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in 1980

Lot Essay

Covered bowls of this type were used as reliquaries and inserted into a stupa, of which this is a particularly fine example in excellent state of preservation; for other examples, see I. Kurita, Gandharan Art, vol. II, 2003, p. 269, fig. 814.

More from Indian Southeast Asian Art

View All