A GILT COPPER ALLOY RITUAL SWORD HANDLE TIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURYA GILT COPPER ALLOY RITUAL SWORD HANDLETIBET, 15TH/16TH CENTURYHimalayan Art Resources item no. 4742 13 cm (5 1/8 in.) long西藏 十五/十六世紀 銅鎏金寶劍柄Cast in one piece, this hilt which once would have been connected to a blade, symbolizes wisdom and the severance of ties to spiritual and temporal ignorance. The decorative patterning in low relief, with a grip shaped as a leonine face, and the top crowned with a vajra, conveys its ceremonial function, one whose rituals are often associated with deities like Manjusri, Padmasambhava, and Palden Lhamo.Compare with a closely related example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2017.161), and another in the Josette Schulamn Collection with a blade bearing a Nepalese inscription dedicated to Mahakala (see Nathalie Bazin et al., Rituels tibétains: Visions secrètes du Vème Dalaï Lama (1617 – 1682), 2002, p. 146, no. 105).Provenance:Private California Collection, acquired in the 1980s