Lot 1035
1035
A VERY RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE CARVED RED LACQUER BUDDHIST STUPA
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE CALIFORNIA COLLECTION
A VERY RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE CARVED RED LACQUER BUDDHIST STUPA

18TH-19TH CENTURY

Details
A VERY RARE AND UNUSUALLY LARGE CARVED RED LACQUER BUDDHIST STUPA
18TH-19TH CENTURY
The high-shouldered shrine, which is raised on a waisted lotus, is carved around the sides with leafy lotus scroll incorporating shou characters, and has a petal-shaped opening on one side, all below a band of monster masks suspending beaded chains and a band of ruyi and lotus-filled petal lappets. The whole is surmounted by a separate section of five graduated Buddhist umbrellas, each tier carved with a band of shou characters, which also encircle the sides of the separate, stepped pedestal base.
31 ½ in. (80 cm.) high
Provenance
The collection of Ambassador Jacob Gould Schurman (1854-1942), and thence by descent within the family.

Lot Essay

Dr. Schurman served as President of Cornell University (1892-1920), President of the First Philippine Commission (1899-1900), the United States Ambassador to Greece and the Balkans (1912-13 during which time he wrote the book “The Balkan Wars 1912-1913”), the United States Envoy to the Republic of China (1921-1925) and the United States Ambassador to Germany 1925-1929.

A very similar lacquer stupa is in the collection of The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Staten Island, New York, and is illustrated by B. Lipton in Treasures of Tibetan Art: Collections of the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, New York, 1996, p. 47, no. 7.

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