十七世紀 銅錯銀觀音菩薩半迦像 《石叟》仿款

cast seated, the right hand holding a scroll resting on the raised left leg, dressed in long robes opening at the chest and falling into voluminous folds around the feet, the robe hemmed with silver-inlaid scrolls, the face with a benevolent expression with downcast eyes, the hair gathered in an elaborate chignon secured with a pin, inlaid in silver with a Shishou mark on the reverse

Shisou, a legendary artisan, is believed to have lived at the end of the Ming dynasty and excelled in silver-inlaid bronzes, especially scholar’s objects. The precise dates and biography of Shisou remain unclear, however, due to a lack of historical documents.

For Shisou-marked seated bronze figures of Guanyin, see one example dated to the sixteenth to mid-seventeenth century, illustrated in Emperor, Scholar, Artisan, Monk, Sydney Moss Ltd, London, 1984, pp. 280-281, no. 132; a figure reputedly from the collection of Kichirobei Yamaguchi, the founder of Tekisui Museum in Ashiya, Japan, but attributed to the seventeenth to eighteenth century, was sold in Christie’s New York, 21st/22nd March 2013, lot 1282; and another example dated to the Ming dynasty, illustrated in Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics Series, Beijing, 2001, p. 79, no. 40.