2041 - RARE AND IMPORTANT SET FEATURING THREE CROWNED BUDDHAS, CHINA, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD / JIAQING—Porcelain painted with polychrome glazes, predominantly featuring a variegated “robin’s egg” blue, brown, and extensive gilding, which together give the three figures the appearance of a gilded bronze patina; complemented by a deep blue for the hair and scattered polychrome accents simulating semi-precious stone inlays. The three deities are depicted standing, with a small cape draped between their shoulders and shoulder blades, while their torsos are bare; on their chests, an exuberant necklace that rises to the top to form a swastika. The lower part of the dhoti is fastened at the waist by a fabric belt with a long bow at the front, which flows softly down to the feet. Both the cape and the lower section feature an extremely fine and meticulous decoration of stylized flowers, some of the Eight Buddhist Symbols (bajixiang), the character shou (“longevity”), the swastika, bats, and phoenixes.

RARE AND IMPORTANT SET FEATURING THREE CROWNED BUDDHAS, CHINA, QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD / JIAQING—Porcelain painted with polychrome glazes, predominantly featuring a variegated “robin’s egg” blue, brown, and extensive gilding, which together give the three figures the appearance of a gilded bronze patina; complemented by a deep blue for the hair and scattered polychrome accents simulating semi-precious stone inlays. The three deities are depicted standing, with a small cape draped between their shoulders and shoulder blades, while their torsos are bare; on their chests, an exuberant necklace that rises to the top to form a swastika. The lower part of the dhoti is fastened at the waist by a fabric belt with a long bow at the front, which flows softly down to the feet. Both the cape and the lower section feature an extremely fine and meticulous decoration of stylized flowers, some of the Eight Buddhist Symbols (bajixiang), the character shou (“longevity”), the swastika, bats, and phoenixes. The head, surmounted by a pinnacle-shaped usnisa, has a seven-pointed crown, with the two outermost points being small. The three statues are mounted on elegant, sculpted wooden bases. 45.5 x 20 x 16 cm The attribute that each of the three deities holds in their hands identifies which particular Buddha they represent: Bhaisajyaguru (in Chinese, Yaoshi, the Medicine Buddha) with the pagoda; Shakyamuni (in Chinese, Shijiamouni, the Original Buddha) with the alms bowl; Amitabha (in Chinese, Amituofo, the Buddha of Infinite Light) with the cintamani jewel. This triad thus brings together the three most important and well-known manifestations of the Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism. This iconography spread throughout China beginning in the Ming Dynasty but remained relatively rare during the Qing Dynasty. Even in their poses, these three figures clearly echo the imperial bronze statuary of the early Ming period. The technique of polychrome enamel on porcelain, designed to imitate bronze, was one of the most complex in the production of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen during the 18th and 19th centuries. It was strongly promoted by Emperor Yongzheng and, above all, by his successor Qianlong, who had a profound passion for antiquities. While this technique was primarily applied to tableware—whose forms also echo the bronze models of the first millennium B.C. (see the hu-shaped vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Qianlong mark and period, inv. 79.2.799)—it is much rarer in statuary. See, for example, the kneeling bodhisattva published in Legeza I.L., *A Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Malcolm MacDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics*, London, 1972, p. 79, no. 384, dated to the Qianlong period and similar to these three figures in terms of the deity’s facial features, the type of glaze with extensive gilding, the decoration of the dothi, and the widespread use of enamel accents to simulate semi-precious stone inlay.