Gigantic stone Buddha, big vintage painting

[gino22]

Picked up the Buddha today, probably overpaid... thought it was soapstone, but upon closer inspection I proved to be some kind of cast resin... bottom has a small vent hole from the casting process. Weighs 25 lbs, stands 18 in. high.



Then I noticed there was a signature on the back -- could anyone decipher the 3 Chinese characters? How would you market this?

Picked up the painting a while ago... was tempted to dismiss it as a tourist painting, but the dark palette and overall moodiness wouldn't attract many tourists, nor would the large size (24x36"). Signature is the work of an experienced artist, but is so calligraphic that I can't decipher it. Any guesses? No idea how to market this one either. The more I look at it, the more I like it... but if it's not by a known artist it will be really hard to move online. Gotta figure out that signature...

 

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[JimDon]

Boy the Buddha sure looks carved to me. As for the painting I am not seeing a lot of draftsmenship so I would guess it is an amateur work. I could be wrong though. I looks to me to be E A Brabolt.

 

[gino22]

Boy the Buddha sure looks carved to me. As for the painting I am not seeing a lot of draftsmenship so I would guess it is an amateur work. I could be wrong though. I looks to me to be E A Brabolt.

At first glance, it does look carved. I really don't think it is, though -- areas of finer detail, like fabric wrinkles, look a little too plastic-like to be hand-worked, IMO. The big giveaway is a vent hole on bottom indicating hollow cast work. The heavy weight (25+ lbs) sure fooled me. But I think it's cast, and probably a doorstop, since I'm not looking forward to trying to ship this.

If the Chinese characters on the back are an artist's or respected company's name, that might change things...

Good guess on the painting signature, the first character being E and the first letter of the last name being B hadn't occurred to me.

 

[cyberdan]

Picked up the Buddha today, probably overpaid... thought it was soapstone, but upon closer inspection I proved to be some kind of cast resin. Weighs 25 lbs, stands 18 in. high.

This is a Japanese buddha. I couldn't pick it up if I wanted, weighs several thousand and made of bronze. I could actually walk inside to get out of the rain.