A GILT COPPER ALLOY PURBHA


MONGOLIA, 17TH/18TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no.61914 11 in. (28 cm) long
|蒙古 十七/十八世紀 銅鎏金普巴杵 This ritual implement's fine detail, rich gilding, tripartite blade, and finial are typical of the luxurious Buddhist bronze casting of the Zanabazar school of Mongolia. Compare each face's three-tipped flaming eye brows with a Vajrabhairava in the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts (HAR 50308). For another purbha of the same form, see one attributed to Derge, eastern Tibet, held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Pal, Lamaist Art, Boston, 1969, pl.67). A third is in the Jacques Marchais Museum (Lipton, Treasures of Tibetan Art, New York, 1996, p.219, no.115). Other examples with a narrow knop-grip are published on Himalayan Art Resources (10457, 21572, and 10779). Published and Exhibited Hollywood Galleries, Buddha Enlightened, Hong Kong, 2013, p.25, no.8.  Provenance Acquired in Hong Kong, 1993