Additional Images

Provenance:

From the Collection of Robert Stephenson (lots 268-274)

We are privileged to offer further pieces from the discerning collection of Robert Stephenson, a renowned collector and dealer. Bob was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1948. After receiving an honours degree in physics, mathematics and chemistry, he pursued a successful career in banking. In 1980, he was transferred from Vancouver to Asia with the Toronto Dominion Bank, and it was there that he fell in love with Asian art. He began collecting Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean pieces, and became particularly enamoured with figures of the Buddha, explaining that they gave him a sense of “peace and serenity”. To accommodate his growing collection, Bob began to sell various pieces, and in 1983 he and a friend, Nonny Clemete, established their company Artifacts. When the bank proposed Bob’s relocation to North America in 1984, he opted to trade in his suit and tie for his signature silk-shirt-and-black-pant ensemble, and focused all of his time on collecting and dealing in Asian art. He expanded Artifacts internationally, establishing showrooms in Hong Kong, Brussels, Toronto and Manila, and also opened a factory workshop in Manila where furniture was produced. Bob’s passion for Asian art was enduring, and despite his success in banking, he asserted that “I know I am much happier this way. Maybe I have to work twice as hard, but I am also having twice as much fun doing what I do.” Bob’s collection was internationally recognized for its quality and breadth, as highlighted in Dimensions in Living magazine (March 1988, Hong Kong), illustrated here.

Note:

Naga serpent deities are largely associated with protection, an association featured by the Buddhist account of the naga Muchalinda sheltering Shakyamuni in meditation from harsh weather. The Buddha backed by Muchalinda’s multiple heads is popularly depicted in Buddhist art, an example of which can be found in the current sale, lot 270. The naga is also tied closely with nature and water, with the ability to both nourish life and afflict it with natural disaster. This rendition is more popularly found in the combination of Buddhist and local folk culture from Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where communities flourish around water and the Mekong River culture.

This fierce, stylistic depiction of naga is an established component of Buddhist ‘wat’ architecture in Thailand. The naga head emerges at the end of decorative ‘lamyong’ roof finials, with the neck twisted upwards in a sagittal s-curve and gaze pointed towards the heavens. This image of the water serpent represented a bridge between heaven and earth, a harmonized relationship in Buddhist cosmology. These architectural and sculptural images evolved from ancient Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian influences to form a distinct Thai cultural emblem.

This piece is fired in two substantially large and intact sections. Both feet are grounded beneath the rising transition from the body into the neck, with the ‘kranok’ patterned crest, horn and tongue sturdily fired as part of the main body component.