The unusual seven-character Qianlong mark cast on the front of this figure identifies it as part of the three sets of statues which the Emperor Qianlong presented to his mother on her birthday in 1751, 1761 and 1771. One of these sets has been published by W.E. Clark, Two Lamaistic Pantheons, 1937, and four different images from these Imperial sets are illustrated by Ulrich von Schroeder in Indo-Tibetan Images, p. 546, nos. 155 B, C, D, E.

(US$7,000-9,000)