A bronze figure of Jambhala, Java, 9th 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 with legs crossed in an informal posture, sattvaparyankasana, offering the jambhara fruit in his extended right hand. Purnaghata vases of plenty surround the circular pedestal: compare the circular pedestal and vases of one of three early Javanese examples 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. 143. Like the Eilenberg example, Jambhala wears an upavita over the left shoulder and an udarabandha around his portly belly.