Lot Essay
The mostly illegible inscription includes the date, which reads Tianbao wu nian san yue wu ri.
Compare the examples where the deities are seated either in twos or threes within a similar context above lions and surrounded by descending figures holding beaded garlands illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture), Taipei, 1990, p. 50, pl. 45; by d'Argencé in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, 1974, p. 153, no. 69, dated 595 A.D.; in Zhongguo lidai jinian foxiang tudian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images Through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 256, fig. 186 and p. 289, fig. 210; and one dated 544 A.D. in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T'ang Dynasties, Taipei, 1983, p. 117, no. 11.
Compare the examples where the deities are seated either in twos or threes within a similar context above lions and surrounded by descending figures holding beaded garlands illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen (Chinese Art in Overseas Collections, Buddhist Sculpture), Taipei, 1990, p. 50, pl. 45; by d'Argencé in Chinese, Korean and Japanese Sculpture in the Avery Brundage Collection, 1974, p. 153, no. 69, dated 595 A.D.; in Zhongguo lidai jinian foxiang tudian (Illustrated Chinese Buddha Images Through the Ages), Beijing, 1995, p. 256, fig. 186 and p. 289, fig. 210; and one dated 544 A.D. in Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from the Wei through the T'ang Dynasties, Taipei, 1983, p. 117, no. 11.