Not Sweating the Small Stuff

C18 Chinese Buddha - For Endless Contemplation

If there was a fire in your home and you had five seconds to decide one thing to save, what would it be?

For me, no thought is needed, not even a nanosecond. It'd be an C18 Chinese Buddha.

A friend bought this bronze in Paris some years ago and phoned from Europe to say it was for me. I had been looking for a Buddha - the right Buddha - for a very long time. And so I was prepared to be disappointed - it was sight unseen. But she insisted it was absolutely the one.

And was totally blown away when I finally laid eyes on this crowned beauty.

It was many things. The wonderfully relaxed yet rigidly balanced pose. The way the hands gently gesture. The legs fold plastically over one another. And the robes simply but elegantly drape the body. But mostly I think it was the eternal inward-seeming serenity of the quiet downward gaze.

This most favorite sculpture sits near the centre of a C19 mahogany campaign desk - for endless contemplation.