Mullen Collection Song Dynasty Wooden Guanyin measurements: 202cm Height X 82cm Width X 75cm Depth
To begin this new series in microscopic detection of Authentic vs. Restored vs. the differing Grades of Replications, we have chosen this first article to show a magnificent wooden Guanyin from the Mullen Estate, of which we represent some exquisite and extremely rare items. This massive wooden Guanyin was made from a single tree, with no ‘attached’ parts, and was purchased by the Mullen Estate many years ago at a Californian auction. We have been representing this marvelous piece of Northern Song Dynasty workmanship since long before the current UNESCO Treaty (effective date for both countries, January 14th, 2009), which permanently‘ grandfathers’ the piece legally in the US. Besides the overall beauty of this very important work of fine art, its tremendous size is of particular note. It towers above the famous Song Dynasty Guanyin in a well-known English museum, and also the one that just sold this year at auction in HongKong for well over one million US dollars. It is so large that just to take the full photograph with our new Canon EOS T1i Camera, using our Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, I had to stand in a completely different gallery at our location, over 20 feet away. With a quality lens, it can not be taken in the same room in which it sits. When first loaded for delivery to Tucson years ago, the weight of the statue broke a one-thousand pound pallet upon which it was loaded, and had to be reattached to a much larger wooden pallet for delivery. Since it has been in Tucson, Arizona for many years, we are very certain it has lost much of its water weight (perhaps even as much as third of its original weight), but one simply does not just move this statue around, for reasons beyond the weight alone. It is close to a thousand years old, and while in exquisite condition, the less one moves an authentic Song period wooden masterpiece around, the better; the original paint is fragile, and the original rotting to the outside surface of the lower portion (which will be shown in higher detail) can flake off. However, given its age, the overall condition of this piece is incredible, and totally lacks the much more common degradation from termites, beetles, and such, which one would expect on a sacred item of its age. We will explore this in more depth as we continue on with the article.
The above three photographs were taken with the same equipment mentioned above (as far away from the Guanyin as we could get in the gallery in which it sits), and had to be photographed in three sections of bottom, middle and top thirds. We have never seen a wooden Guanyin of the period, in any museum collection, or one having ever been sold at auction, as large as this one, and its presence in the gallery is truly magnificent. We believe the Guanyin to be of the Northern Song Period (960-1127 CE) due to its remarkable condition, which in our opinion, would have to have been from a colder climate, and most likely was in an indoor temple setting, due to the highly unusual lack of aforementioned degradation from beetles, ants and termites. As can be easily seen in the top photograph, the wooden base has sustained some water damage in the form of ‘wood rot’ over its long history (most likely from ‘wicking’ moisture from the stone floor upon which it most probably rested). There are places on the back of its massive base which are even further degraded, but the overall integrity of the base is extremely sound, and just minor areas of darker wood rot lie on top of the more solid, original wood beneath. In the years we have shown this Guanyin, experts from both sides of the Pacific Ocean have marveled at it, and we can not remember anyone seriously questioning its authenticity. At the same time, the experts who have viewed it have stood far away (one would expect to take in its grandiose beauty), but we have yet to see anyone wishing to examine the piece closely and in detail. As this is not our nature, we have examined the entire Guanyin and have inspected it under 10, 20, and 30x power loupes. This is how we found the old repairs, which only contribute further to the authenticity; old things are old, and should most definitely display some indicators of age. Take for example, the old repair, as can be seen vaguely in the last photograph above, where the natural cracking has taken place down through the left eye of the Guanyin, spreading downward through the chest area, separating beads in the necklace. The fact that this area has been repaired long ago will be examined further in this article; however, the original piece had cracking in it from the natural ‘seasoning’ of the tree before it was sculpted into this magnificent Guanyin.
With the above three close-up photographs, again taken with the Canon EOS T1i camera using Canon’s EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, we will be exploring some of the original techniques for preparation of the tree for sculpting, and get a look at portions of the later repair in some detail. [Please note: while all our photographs, here and on our Timeless Jade website, are run through Photoshop's Lightroom program, we only adjust the cropping, lighting (as different lighting conditions vary the clarity) and the tone settings. No false color images are used in our articles, and we adjust the settings only to help us reveal what our eyes really see under normal lighting conditions, and what our equipment reveals]. In the first photograph above, we are looking at the right hand of the Guanyin where it lies resting over the naturally shaped tree stump she sits upon. In this photo we can see how the wood was prepared, prior to final, colored paint application. As our next article here will be regarding two in-situ Song Dynasty Cizhou white-with-brown decoration Mei vases, and an (at minimum) eight-year old replication, under microscopic examination, we are concerned here with the same type of base coatings applied to both the wood Guanyin and the Song Vases. While the pottery slip coatings were fired onto the finished shapes, before the final two glazes (white and then brown decoration) were applied and fired on, it is obvious that these slip coatings could not be fired onto a wooden piece (these white slip coatings were also used during the Tang Dynasty). However, the principle of use is much the same – to seal the rough clay surfaces, and to seal the grain pores on the wooden objects prior to final design features. As we will see in the Macro photos to come, there were three different sealant coatings used on the Mullen Guanyin before the application of the final colored paint. The first base layer was a thick grey colored coating, the second was the much more familiar white coating (found on Cizhou and Cizhou-type pottery wares), and the third was another thinly applied and finer- textured grey sealant. The first, heavier, grey layer appears to be used primarily to seal the wood pores. The second (also heavier) white layer of of what seams to be a lime-based sealant also would have helped seal the wood, and at the same time smooth out any minuscule imperfection from the carving and sanding of the wood. The third grey coating (which can be seen just below the bangle area, in the viewers upper left of the photo) lies between the yellow paint and the thicker white sealant, and appears to be much thinner and more refined.
In the final two photos above, we are looking at an area of the old repaired section mentioned earlier. In both of the photographs, only the center section from a developing crack were repaired, with the sides retaining their original coatings and final Song Period paint. (These two photos were also taken with Canon’s EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens). In the center of each photo, we can quite clearly see the cloth used to repair the developing crack. What is harder to see is in the last photo, in the area of the hole from a missing piece of the repair, are the tiny fibers of the cloth surrounding the hole. While it is not possible for us to just pick this massive Guanyin up and take it to our microscope for more in depth photography, it appears under a common loupe quite clearly – but only in this section of the Guanyin and over the top of the original three sealants and final paint of the Song Dynasty Period. It has resisted detection for so long by viewers simply because it shows up far better under the brighter lights we had on the sculpture while photographing. From just a foot away, under normal lighting, this repair takes a very trained eye to be observed in any detail. That it is an old repair is not in doubt by us at this time (there may be enough material to Carbon 14 date) as it shows its own particular wear and penetration of airborne incenses and possibly coal oils, as does the entire statue. These types of penetrations are to be highly expected on above-ground artifacts of worship, as the temple often had incense burning (some incense ‘sticks’ were coiled and so massive they burned for over 50 years). All wear on the original painted surfaces shows up as natural, from touching, wind-borne particles, and natural bacterial decomposition, and no signs of artificial aging can be detected.
In the three photographs above, we are looking at an area just to the left of the Guanyin’s left hand (as shown in the previous set of photos), and in an area in which the wood rot extends from the very bottom of the statue up to the edge of the tree on which the Guanyin rests her hand. There are much deeper wood rot areas (some as deep as 3-4″) on the bottom area of the statue, but we chose this spot because it is the least rotted away, and meets the original three sealants on the edge. The grey we see in the three photos above is not the first grey sealant coating, but rather a minor rotted portion of the wood that has turned grey with exposure to sunlight. The lighter portions of the wood are areas where the grey has ‘chipped’ off over time with the movement, handling and shipping of the Guanyin. Pieces of this fragile rotted wood still ‘flake’ off from time to time, on their own, and we are very careful in letting no one pick at it (as it is always a great temptation for most people to want to touch an authentic piece – much the same as it was when the item was in its original place of worship, and the Chinese would offer prayers and touch items like the wooden Guanyin and the bronzes and ceramic deities). In all three photographs above, we can easily see the rot extending deeper into the wood in both the grey and the lighter areas. The one marvelous advantage to having these exposed areas of the original hard wood surface is that the Guanyin can be easily Carbon 14 tested, should any Chinese museum (as both the owners and ourselves would prefer for the piece to return home) desire to have the test performed for themselves, as there so many places in which it could be tested (the wood of the tree should date back into the Tang Dynastic period), without harming the sculptural beauty. Also, the lack of termite and other bug damage can be easily viewed in all three close-up photos above. This would lend us to believe the Guanyin was an inside temple artifact which rested on a solid stone foundation. As mentioned earlier, the rot may have come over the centuries from the wicking up of moisture, into the original bottom of the statue. This moisture may have been present on a stone floor, and it was probably the stone floor which protected the Guanyin from the insect damage so commonly found in these and later period pieces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The fact that it is in such remarkable condition would also lead us to believe in the Northern Song Dynasty dating, as it would logically have tended to have more vector damage if it were from the Southern Song Dynasty area, which comprised an area of warmer temperate regions, which would have been less resistant to these vectors than a much cooler Northern climate.
In the two photographs above, we get as close as we reasonably need to for this beginning article on microscopic detection techniques of ancient artifacts (almost all the following articles will be accompanied with microscopic photography). Because of the massive nature of this Guanyin, and not wanting to build any scaffolding on which to mount our microscopic equipment, with its fully articulating arm, which will lock into a myriad of positions, we chose to use our Canon EOS T1i camera using Canon’s MPE 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro lens. The Canon Macro lens is not what is found on the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. It is a true magnifier and a wonderful complement to any photographer’s inventory. With this wonderful lens, we could get clear photos under the 1X and 3X settings on the lens, as can be seen in the photos above. However, we could not get the 5X setting photos to come out, as we did not have enough lighting for the lens to be so close to the subject. With Canon’s light attachment for the Camera and lens, we would have been able to show the 5X, but then it narrows down the field of vision to such a point where the depths of the original Song Dynasty final paint and the three sealant coatings would not be seen.
In both of the photographs above, we can see all four of the original coatings of sealants and final paint. In the first photograph, it shows up the clearest as the depth of field is not as exaggerated as we find in the second photo taken at 3X. By studying the first photo above in detail, you will be able to discern the original wood surface, the first grey layer of sealant, the second layer of thicker white sealant, the final thin layer of grey sealant, and the original layer of Song Dynasty blue paint. This is not just a particular area we chose to show specific findings, but rather the entire Guanyin can be viewed the same as we see above (with the only exception being in the repaired area, photographed and shown above in this article). On top of the final layer of Song Dynasty period paint, we can also detect the aforementioned, darkened areas of either incense or coal oil (or both) penetration and coating.
David Fredericks –Yulongwei — US # 520-991-2153