Page 94 - Bonhams GANBEI A Toast To Wine Culture, Hong Kong Nov 30 2022

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A BAMBOO CARVED ‘ORCHID PAVILION GATHERING’
RECTANGULAR TABLE SCREEN
19th century
The rectangular screen intricately carved in varying layers of relief
through the rich brown colour of the bamboo, one side with a lakeside
terrace scene with scholars and their attendants, nestled amongst
jagged rockwork, pine, paulownia, willow and bamboo trees; the other
side with two poems, of which the second poem can be recognised
as the second prose of Lanting shi (lit. the poem of the Orchid Pavilion)
composed by the Jin dynasty poet Yuan Qiaozhi, inscribed by qitai and
a seal of his, reading shi, all supported on an elaborately carved stand
with an apron carved with stylised archaistic bands.
48cm (19in) wide x 38cm (15in) high.

HKD150,000 - 250,000
US$19,000 - 32,000
十九世紀 竹雕蘭亭雅集圖插屏

The present lot took its inspiration from the very well-known preface
Lanting Xu (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion) composed by the most
celebrated Chinese calligrapher, Wang Xizhi (c.303-361), regarded as
‘the Sage of Calligraphy’. The scene illustrated on the table screen
took place in the 9th year of the Yonghe reign (353), of the Eastern Jin
dynasty, when forty-two scholars were invited to the Orchid Pavilion
(Lanting), near Shanyin, Zhejiang province, for the Spring Purification
Festival. Scholars were required to take part in a poetry competition
and a drinking contest with wine cups flowing down a winding creek;
those who failed to come up with a poem would have to drink in forfeit.

Lanting Xu was one of the most celebrated works of literature and had
a profound influence on later generations. Literati thereafter copied
this canonical preface onto stone and ink-rubbings, table screens,
ink cakes, and many other scholarly objects. The present screen
demonstrates a high level of vibrant and crisp carving skills in depicting
the events taking place and the naturalistic rendering of the plants.
取竹根為材，攢框成屏，深浮雕亭台樓榭之間雕文士十數人彈琴、飲
酒、作詩、觀畫、遊船等活動，水榭山石間又雕仕女數人憑欄而眺，
園中松木參天，竹林、蕉石掩映，童子數人侍奉杯盞茶事、酒事往來
其間，畫面繁密，層次豐富，十分熱鬧。
畫面下方有童子戲鵝，加之其他童子侍奉杯盞，應是指代蘭亭雅集。
晉穆帝永和九年（公元353）三月三日，時任會稽內史的王羲之與友
人謝安、孫綽等四十一人會聚蘭亭，賦詩飲酒，此一典故成為後世各
類藝術作品創作題材，明清竹雕常加以發揮，惟人物裝束自是明清當
時面貌。

插屏背光陰刻詩文「癸丑蘭亭盛況興，群賢畢至感懷生。形骸放浪欣
娛趣，觴詠臨流暢敘情。慨世悲時察今古，嗟長痛短悟殤彭。雖無竹
絲管絃樂，修禊山陰惠氣清。」以及「四眺華林茂，俯仰清川渙。激
水流芳醪，豁爾累心散。遐想逸民軌，遺音良可翫。古人詠舞雩，
今也同斯歎。」落款「其泰」，刻印「時」。後詩為晉袁嶠之《蘭亭
詩》之二。

92 | BONHAMS