Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1251. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $6100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

[Medieval] LOCAL ISSUES, Silk Road Region. 5th-8th century AD. AV Bracteate (0.68 g, 12h). Uncertain Brahmi inscription, pearl-diademed and crowned bust facing, bhindi on forehead and wearing earrings and necklace, holding vase and sceptre tipped by flame within crescent. Cf. Göbl, Dokumente pl. 87, B1-B2; cf. Stein (Wang) p. 239 = BM IA.XII.c.1; V. Raspopova, "Gold Coins and bracteates from Pendjikent," in Coins, Art, and Chronology, pp. 453-460; cf. A. Juliano and J. Lerner, eds. Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China, pp. 271-291; MACW -. EF, small ragged edge on flan. Unique. ($7500)

This particularly fine-style bracteate is an example of the type normally encountered along the Silk Road in central Asia. These objects were used as jewelry, or talismans and, as objects of prestige, they were sometimes buried with their owners. Often, Byzantine solidi were employed as the protoytpes for these curious objects, although either Sasanian or Hunnic drachms were also used. While the inspiration may have ultimately been Byzantine, this item displays clear central Asian and Indian influences. The general appearance of the figure, the presence of the bhindi as well as the vase and sceptre tipped by flame within crescent, and the as yet indecipherable Brahmi legend, suggest strong Indian, possibly Buddhist influence and show the cross-cultural borrowing that occurred along this vital economic highway. Given the somewhat religious significance of these bracteates, perhaps the figure is one of the many bhodisattvas within Mahayana Buddhism who acted as spiritual intercessories or "saints", bridging this realm and the next.