A Korean (Koryo dynasty) schist cinerary chest, offered with a £5000-8000 estimate at Woolley & Wallis.
Six grey schist slabs cut with tenons form the box, the outer faces incised with depictions of the Four Guardian Animals intended to protect the deceased in the afterlife, including the Dark Tortoise-Serpent of the North, the Red Phoenix of the South, the Blue Dragon of the East and the White Tiger of the West.
It was purchased by William Ohly (1883-1955), the British ethnographic art collector and Berkeley Galleries owner, in the early 1940s from Yamanaka & Co, London.
The firm, founded by Yamanaka Sadajiro (1865-1936), sourced objects in China for sale in galleries in London and the US.
The estimate £5000-8000 at Woolley & Wallis sale in Salisbury on November 14.
