TANG DYNASTY DATED 717 ADCarved in high relief with Buddha Shakyamuni at the centre, flanked by two bodhisattvas, each figure depicted standing in samabhanga on a double lotus base, wearing long flowing robes, backed by a nimbus, the inscription dated to the eighth day, third month and fifth year of Kaiyuan, AD 717, 23cm.Provenance: from the collection of the late Michael Sherrard QC CBE (1928-2012), acquired prior to 2000.Cf. O Siren, Chinese Sculpture, from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century, pl.368 for a similar Stele, see also Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Northern Wei to Ming, Eskenazi, p.40, no.11, for a limestone Buddhist group dated to 673.