LONDON.- The Islamic, Indian, Himalayan and South East Asian online auction organised by Arthur Millner at 25 Blythe Road will include a fine group of rare Indian and Cambodian sculptures dating between 2nd – 13th centuries from the collection of dealer, the late Bruno Cooper.

The catalogue is now online at www.25BlytheRoad.com where the auction also takes place from the 8th June, closing at midday on 11th June. Among the 369 lots, there will also be also be paintings, metalwork and textiles.

Amongst the bronze and stone images, there are seven rare Indian and Cambodian sculptures dating between 2nd-13th centuries, from the collection of well-known dealer, the late Bruno Cooper. By the time of his death in August 2012 Cooper, had built up one of the finest small collections of Indian sculpture in the country.

Particularly striking is a Kushan head of a Yaksha in pink sandstone, from Uttar Pradesh, Northern India, 2nd /3rd century. The grimacing face with pronounced eyebrows and bared teeth is similar to an example in the Mathura Museum. These yaksha figures carried riches for the Hindu god Siva to distribute to his devotees. The estimate is £2,500 - £3,500.

This fragmentary roundel depicting a gandharva from Central India, probably Madhya Pradesh, circa 11th century, is also from the collection of the late Bruno Cooper.

In pink sandstone, the flying four-armed moustachioed deity is wearing large disc earrings and crown, and holding a garland in his primary hands, and a sword and shield in his other hands.

In Hindu tradition, gandharvas flit through the sky, acting as physicians to the gods and scattering flower petals from their garlands onto gods and heroes. The estimate is: £8,000-12,000

An Angkor Wat head of a deity, probably Vishnu, is from Cambodia, and dates from the second half of the 11th century. Before coming into the possession of Bruno Cooper, it had belonged to another interesting collector, Peter Bruckmann. Bruckmann was born in 1918, and his father was a chemical manufacturer. They lived in Sydenham and, later, Cookham Dean, next door to Stanley Spencer. Bruckmann acquired this piece in the 1960s. Following his death, it was sold at auction and then bought Cooper in 2011. It is now being sold by his family.

The head is made of grey sandstone, and wearing elaborate flared crown and conical headdress, the decoration and face with incised details. The estimate is: £3000-5000.

A rare Sogdian silk fragment from Central Asia, 8th/9th century is one of the highlights of the textile section in this auction.

The samite weave has a design comprising pairs of stylised peacocks standing on horizontal branches, facing each other within leafy garlands. Complex woven silks demonstrate the great technical advances in Central Asia and Eastern Iran during this period; for the wealthy elite these silks were so important as displays of status and wealth that the industry was one of the key pillars of the economy in the area. Birds (sometimes easily identifiable as ducks, eagles or peacocks) in similar roundels to these can be seen on other examples in museum collections, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.2.1. There are also related fragments depicting hunters in the Cleveland Museum of Art (1982.284 & 1959.124). The estimate is £7,500- £9,500.

Also among the textiles are some interesting examples of Greek embroidered linen, including a horizontal 18th century silk embroidered linen bed valance, made in Rhodes.

The plain ground is decorated in the middle with nine glastra (flower-vase) motifs, each containing a stylised flower vase, bordered on bottom and one side by double platyphylla (broad-leaf) motifs, and a row of smaller single motifs along top edge, mounted on stretcher.

Rhodes bed embroideries were known as mostra 'showpieces', and were prominently displayed. Textiles from this island in the Dodecanese are particularly distinctive with their thick textured designs. For a fragment of a closely related valance in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Tatiana Ioannou-Yannara, Greek Embroidery 17th-19th Century: Works of Art from the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Athens 2000, no.117, p.280f. Estimate: £1,500-£2,500.

This 18th century silk embroidered shelf or cushion cover, made in Thasos Greece, is also part of the textiles section.

The indigo cotton ground is embroidered in maroon, yellow and off-white, and the design comprises geometric serrated lozenge shaped petals. The label on the frame reads: G. Kanakis, Encadrement Ameublement, Rue Stamboul, 8, Alexandrie, Egypte.

Thasos embroideries from the North-East Aegean are one of the less familiar types amongst the extraordinarily rich variety of Greek island embroideries. The geometrical motifs recall the much better known Naxos style, but, using a wider range of colours and, including white, and some rare examples, like this, are embroidered on blue ground. The geometrical motifs show more variety than those in Naxos. There are a handful of Thasos textiles in the Victoria and Albert Museum, two in particular relate closely this, with blue ground and similar embroidered colours (T232 1912, and most of all T410 1950). See also Tatiana Ioannou-Yannara, Greek Embroidery 17th-19th Century: Works of Art. The estimate is £2,000-£3,000.