A bronze figure of Jambhala, Java, 9th - 10th century

Collection of George Sheridan (1923-2008), acquired in Paris, London and New York from the 1960s onwards, and thence by descent; a passion nurtured from his friendship with Professor Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998), who donated his collection to the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1987.

The Buddhist wealth god sits in the regal posture, lalitasana, with his right foot resting on a purnaghata vase of plenty. A further five vases are placed on the stepped base below: compare the asana and the stepped pedestal and vases of one of three early Javanese figures of Jambhala in the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, see Martin Lerner and Steven Kossak, The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1991, cat. no. 145. Jambhala holds a cylindrical vase in his right hand and a mongoose, nakula, in the left.