Mysterious Tibeto-Chinese ‘sceptre’ amongst historical treasures on show for Grange Manor auction

Divorced from their context, they became meaningless and were passed down the generations until the story behind them was lost in time. Occasionally, they turn up at auction. When this happens, there's a scramble to identify the object, reconstruct its story and estimate its value.

One such mystery object is going under the hammer as part of Sheppard's sale of the contents of Grange Manor, Kilkenny, on November 26. It's catalogued as: "Lot 68: Tibeto-Chinese Gilt Bronze Sceptre six-character reign mark of the Yongle Emperor" and estimated to sell for between €3,000 and €5,000.

This is a sizeable artefact: 41 cm long and weighty in the hand. It looks and feels significant. A hole in the top indicates that it may once have been attached to something else.

The Yongle Emperor, who reigned from 1402 to 1424, was the third emperor of China's Ming Dynasty

There's no backstory. The family who own the sceptre don't know what it is or how it came to Ireland. The object is theirs by inheritance, passed down by marriage. The only clue is a family history of service in the British colonial administration. Most likely, it was brought into the country by a returning civil ­servant or soldier. Given the lack of documentation, he probably didn't know much about it either.

A similar-looking object in the Met Museum, New York, is catalogued as a "Sino-Tibetan Ritual Scraper", which leaves us little wiser.

There's more detail in Buddhist Ritual Art of Tibet by Michael Henss (2020), which illustrates a rinchen serdar, or "precious golden file".

This is a two-part set consisting of equally sized staffs made of iron and gilded copper alloy, and connected by a suspending chain. The decoration on each is similar. One has a curved mid-section inlaid with the "five precious metals": gold, silver, copper, brass and iron, the other has a rectangular cross-section.

This is the part that acts as a tool to "scrape off ps of the auspicious five metals from the main staff, which can be mixed with clay for votive tablets or with dough for tormas."

In Tibetan Buddhism, a torma is an effigy made of flour and butter, created as an offering to deities. The metal scrapings were also added to chang (a fermented drink) "for libation offerings to wrathful protectors as depicted on the handle."​

Tantric Tibetan Buddhist rituals are beyond the understanding of most Westerners, but the object at Sheppard's looks very much like one half of a rinchen serdar set.

The "six-character reign mark of the Yongle Emperor" makes it even more interesting.

The Yongle Emperor, who reigned from 1402 to 1424, was the third emperor of China's Ming Dynasty. He was very interested in Tibetan Buddhism and invited Deshin Shekpa, the fifth Karmapa, to visit the Ming Court (the Karmapa is a reincarnating lama of great importance in Tibetan Buddhism).

At the age of 23, Deshin Shekpa set off on a three-year journey to China. He's said to have arrived on an elephant and instructed the Yongle Emperor in Tibetan Buddhism.

The story is rich in mythology. According to some accounts, the Karmapa responded to the Yongle Emperor's profound faith in him by manifesting a hundred days of miracles, lighting the clouds with iridescent colours, and making flowers fall from the sky.

It's likely that ritual objects, copied from Tibetan prototypes, were produced in the imperial court. The object for sale at Sheppard's may well be one of them.

Other exotic objects in the sale are less mysterious. A 19th-century Indian hardwood and ivory inlaid box (38cm wide) is decorated with an intricate pattern of leaves and flowers (est €800 to €1,200).

The box was gifted to Kilkenny-born Sir Geoffrey Fitzhervey de Montmorency (1876-1955), on his appointment as Governor of the Punjab in 1928.

It was an extremely oppressive regime. In 1930, Montmorency was shot in Lahore by a would-be assassin. He survived the attack but an Indian policeman, sub-inspector Chanan Singh, died.

The shooter, a 19-year-old Indian revolutionary called Hari Kishan Talwar, was executed for the crime.

The contents of Grange Manor, Co Kilkenny, will be on view on the premises from November 23 to 25. The sale takes place from November 26 to 28 in Sheppard's Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois. See sheppards.ie.