83. 83W RARE DRY LACQUER BUDDHA STATUE XVIIth/XVIIIth century A VERY RARE LARGE DRY-LACQUER FIGURE OF BUDDHA 17th/18th century Seated in meditation in dhyanasana on a lotus pedestal with a double row of lotus petals, with his hands held in anjali mudra, wearing a diaphanous dhoti tied at his waist and falling in generous folds across his legs, his shoulders and arms covered with a fine shawl, his face with a serene expression, with arched brows, wide downcast eyes, a straight nose and a gentle smile, the hair neatly combed and tied up into a chignon, small traces of gilding and red pigments. 67 cm (26 3/8 in) high PROPERTY OF A FRENCH LADY 法國女士私人珍藏 十七/十八世紀 夾紵乾漆佛像 Provenance: Collection of C.T. Loo (1880-1957), Paris. Collection of Mme Lucie Gass, Boulogne, C.T. Loo's restorer, then in the family by descent and acquired from the descendants of Mme Gass by the present owner in September 1990. The result of CIRAM C14 sample no. 0724-OA-1137J, dated 16 September 2024, is consistent with the dating of this lot. 來源 盧芹齋（1880-1957年）收藏，巴黎 Lucie Gass女士收藏，布洛涅，盧芹齋之修復師，後經家族流傳，現藏家於1990年9月得自Gass女士後人。 本拍品經法國CIRAM實驗室碳-14檢測編號0724-OA-1137J（2024年9月16日），結果與其斷代相符 This rare large figure of a seated buddha is made in dry lacquer, a material that was rarely used in Chinese sculpture as it was more often carved from stone or cast in bronze. The technique of making hollow core dry lacquer sculpture was complicated and required skilled craftsmen. In a first step a clay core in the shape of the designated image was was created on an internal armature onto which layers of cloth strips were applied thereby helping to create a more detailed form of the figure. Multiple layers of lacquer were applied over a first layer bulked with fillers, the clay core removed and the dried lacquer surface painted and gilt. Inside the hollow figure wood pieces around the interior edges of the base provide structural support. Very few Buddhist hollow-core dry lacquer figures are known. They include three dry lacquer figures of Buddha, one in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, the second in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, and the third in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, all three dated to the late sixth and early seventh centuries, an eighth century dry lacquer figure of a bodhisattva in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and a dry lacquer figure of bodhisattva in the Nepalese style dated to the Yuan dynasty (accession no. F1945.4) from the collection of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Samples taken from the wood inside the buddha have revealed a date to the 18th century. No large dry lacquer figure of this date is known but stylistically we can relate the figure to the sculptures produced in the region of Jehol near Chengde northeastern China. These sculptures made in the 18th century reflect Tibetan influence and reflect the Qing courts espousal of Tibetan Buddhism and its preference for Buddhist sculptures made in the Tibeto-Chinese style. The sculptures in the Wan fa gui yi dian in the Potala in Jehol illustrate the style favoured by the Qianlong emperor (Fig. ). Compare this figure with a very large gilt wood figure of Buddha, sold Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2019, lot 2704.