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Lot 104
A PART-GILT SILVER BUTTER LAMP
Estimated Value:
500 € - 800 €
Result:
647 € incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Tibet, 19th c.H. 24,5 cm
Butter lamps come in all sizes, from the smallest bowl to almost man-sized vessels, for the butter offering. The smaller the lamps, the larger the number of bowls lined up. In these vessels there is a small hole at the bottom into which the wick made of twisted cotton is inserted. The vessel is filled to the brim with liquefied butter or tea, and the wick is lit. The small, innumerable, flickering flames produce a very warm, almost mystical light in the usually gloomy rooms, but the soot that is produced is not exactly beneficial for the spatial surroundings and the objects in them. This does not seem to bother the people who are in them. There is a constant coming and going in the temples to refill the butter in the lamps. But also in the dwellings, the light in the butter lamps must never go out, because the butter is important as an offering of thanks to the deities, and at the same time a request for long life. Therefore, in the centre of the base of this butter lamp there is symbolically a vase of water of life chiselled with patterns, from which four gilded leaves decorated with small turquoises project in the four cardinal directions. The lower part of the base is designed with ribbed, stylised lotus leaves.
Important southern German private collection, acquired at Schoettle Ostasiatica before 2000 - Traces of age
