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Lot Essay
A shell of this type, also 'right spiraling, was given to the Qianlong emperor on his forty-fifth birthday as a gift from the Sixth Panchen, illustrated in Cultural Relics of Tibetan Buddhism Collected in the Qing Palace, The Forbidden City Press, 1992, p. 175, no. 130-1. The Palace Museum shell is undecorated and is kept in a leather box with inscriptions recording the gift in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian and Tibetan on a label. From Buddhist scriptures conch shells were traditionally blown as trumpets during Buddhist ceremonies, and as such they were considered as a symbol of the 'Voice of Buddha'.
Another gilt-metal right-spiraling conch-shell was included in the exhibition Monarchy and Its Buddhist Way, Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, and illustrated in the Catalogue, Taipei, 1996, pp. 150-151, no. 62. The National Palace Museum shell was recorded to have been given by Qianlong in his 52nd year (1787) to one of his generals, Fu Kangan, to act as a Talisman on Fu's voyage to Taiwan. The inscription on the box states that right-spiraling conch shells are rare, ibid., p. 150. Compare also with a left-spiraling shell, originally stored in the Yuhua Pavilion in the Forbidden Palace, illustrated, op. cit., p. 149, no. 61.
Another gilt-metal right-spiraling conch-shell was included in the exhibition Monarchy and Its Buddhist Way, Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Implements in the National Palace Museum, and illustrated in the Catalogue, Taipei, 1996, pp. 150-151, no. 62. The National Palace Museum shell was recorded to have been given by Qianlong in his 52nd year (1787) to one of his generals, Fu Kangan, to act as a Talisman on Fu's voyage to Taiwan. The inscription on the box states that right-spiraling conch shells are rare, ibid., p. 150. Compare also with a left-spiraling shell, originally stored in the Yuhua Pavilion in the Forbidden Palace, illustrated, op. cit., p. 149, no. 61.