Page 46 - 2020 December 1 Bonhams Hong Kong, Eternal Music in Chinese art

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A CARVED ‘SCHOLAR AND ATTENDANT’ BAMBOO BRUSHPOT, A literatus with a young servant carrying a qin has been a popular
BITONG motif in Chinese Art as early as the Song dynasty. The attendant
Signed Wang Jian, cyclically dated Wuchen year, corresponding to carrying a wrapped qin is a reference to one of the Four Scholarly
1748 and of the period Accomplishments - playing a qin - which formed an integral part of
Of cylindrical form raised on three bracket feet, the exterior delicately literati life.
carved with a bearded scholar holding a long wooden staff and
accompanied by an attendant carrying a guqin, strolling in an immense Jingqian laoren is the Studio name of Wang Jian, a native of Jiading and
landscape of rugged cavernous mountains dotted with bamboo the nephew of the famous bamboo carver Wang Zhiyu, who was active
groves, beneath a pine tree beside a trickling stream, the reverse during the Kangxi and early Qianlong periods. They were both members
inscribed with a short poem signed Jingqian laoren (The Elder of One of the Jiading School of bamboo carving and were renowned for their
Thousand Mirrors), the base with a sunken well, the warm russet- delicate and naturalistic low-relief carving technique known as bo di
coloured surface with streaks of golden and darker brown veining. yang wen, a technique which was introduced by Wu Zhifan, one of the
12.3cm (4 7/8in) high. most important bamboo carvers of the Kangxi period.

HKD200,000 - 300,000 The meticulously rendered detail in low-relief carving is stylistically
US$26,000 - 39,000 close to a bamboo brushpot by Wu Zhifan, early Qing dynasty,
illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum: Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong
十八世紀 王鑒刻竹雕鏡千老人款山林策杖圖筆筒 Kong, 2002, p.31, no.30. See another bamboo carved wrist rest by
Wu Zhifan in the Nanjing Museum, with pine trees and scholars carved
Provenance: in a similar style, illustrated by Y.Haitao, ‘A Panoramic Discussion on
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 25 April 2004, lot 9 (offered) Bamboo Sculpture during Ming and Qing Dynasties’, in Southeast
Culture, 2001, issue 6, p.30, fig.17.
來源：
香港蘇富比，2004年4月25日，拍品編號9（上拍） Compare with the similarly-rendered rockwork on a bamboo brushpot
by Zhou Zhiyan, dated 1744, illustrated in Literati Spirit-Art of Chinese
Bamboo Carving, Shanghai, 2012, p.68, pl.24.

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