TIBETO-CHINOIS, EPOQUE JIAQING (1796-1820)

Reliquary stupas are made of a variety of materials, including gilt-bronze, silver and cloisonné enamel with inlaid or enamelled embellishments. Stylistically related to the present lot is a gilt silver reliquary containing an image of Amitayus and decorated on the base with hardstone inlays, illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, Forbidden City Press, Hong Kong, 1992, pl. 135. A pair of stupa reliquaries is also illustrated ibid., pl. 105, in situ flanking a sandalwood sculpture of Avalokiteshvara in the Pavilion of Raining Flowers. Compare the present stupa with a variety of gilt bronze and gilt copper examples included in A Special Exhibition of Buddhist Gilt Votive Objects, National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1995, and illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 1-7. For an example in cloisonné enamel, see the Catalogue to the exhibition Buddhist Art from Rehol, The Chang Foundation and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, 1999, no. 79.