Page 94 - The Ian and Susan Wilson Collection Schilar's Objects, Christie's, March 2016

1180
A QIN-FORM DUAN INK STONE
19TH CENTURY
The ink stone is shaped in the form of a
qin, carved with 13 studs (hui) on the left
side and 7 tuning pegs at the top (zhen), and
an ‘inkwell’ at the center. A two-character
inscription, Tialai (‘heavenly music’), is
carved on the reverse in raised seal script
followed by an incised name, Sun Deng, and
a square seal, Gonghe. A collector’s mark,
Haoyuan zhenwan (‘treasured plaything of
Haoyuan’) is carved on one narrow side.
Together with a qin-form ink cake, second half TL. 1989.147.13.
19th century, with a seal mark, Jianyingzhai
(‘Studio of Appreciating Luster’) at the
top and a three-character mark, Taiguxin
(‘ancient heart’), carved in seal script and
gilded in the mid section of the underside.
Ink stone: 5√ in. (14.8 cm.) long; ink cake:
3Ω in. (8.8 cm.) long (2)
$8,000-12,000
92
PROVENANCE
Ink stone:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd, 1983.
Private collection, New York.
Nicholas Grindley, London, 1998.
Ink cake:
Sanuk, San Francisco.
EXHIBITED
Ink stone:
Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1989-1998.
S. Little, Spirit Stones of China, the Ian and Susan owned by Hu Aitang, who was active during the
Wilson Collection of Chinese Stones, Paintings, and
Related Scholars’ Objects, Chicago, 1999, no. 64.
LITERATURE
Ink stone:
S. Moss, Documentary Chinese Works of Art in
Scholars’ Taste, London, 1983, p 162-3, no. 105.
S. Little, Spirit Stones of China, the Ian and Susan B93F-B53755F33FA8%7D=41775
Wilson Collection of Chinese Stones, Paintings, and
Related Scholars’ Objects, Chicago, 1999, no. 64.
M. Knight, ‘Scholar’s Objects in the Ian
and Susan Wilson Collection’, Orientations,
May 1999, p. 51, fg. 5.
The ink stone is modeled after a Ming dynasty
qin named Tianlai, which bears the name of Sun
Deng and a seal, gonghe, and is in the collection
of the Palace Museum, Beijing.
http:/www.dpm.org.cn/shtml/117/@/115422.
html
Sun Deng, style name Gonghe, was a Daoist
scholar famous for playing the one-stringed lute,
who was active during the Wei dynasty of the
Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-265).
Jianyingzhai was the name of an ink cake shop
Daoguang period (1821-1850). Another ink cake
with a Jianyingzhai mark and dated to the Qing
dynasty, after 1850, is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (30.76.195, Rogers
Fund 1929).
http:/metmuseum.org/exhibitions/
view?exhibitionId=%7B0FFD4537-CC07-4067-
清十九世紀 端石琴硯
(inscriptions)