A SMALL CARVED SANDSTONE STELE WITH FOUR-ARMED GANESHA
Possibly Vietnam or Cambodia, South East Asia, 13th - 15th century

Carved with a four-armed Ganesha standing in a squatting stance under a small arched flaming stele, each hand holding one of the typical attributes of this deity including the mala rosary beads, his broken tusk, a sweet laddoo, and a stylised lotus flower, wearing a thin diaphanous dhoti around his waist and legs, and a long ceremonial garland, below his pedestal a figural panel with an elephant, a mound reminiscent of Buddhist stupas, and another four-legged animal, possibly a calf or cow, mounted on a black stand, 57.5cm including the stand.

Provenance: recently purchased at a provincial countryside auction in the UK and prior to that, in a private UK estate in Cheshire.