Page 168 - Christie's July 9th 2020 Hong Kong Important Chinese Works of Art

2905 2906

A SMALL GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE A SILVER-INLAID IRON RUYI SCEPTRE
RECTANGULAR CENSER QIANLONG SILVER-INLAID SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF
QING DYNASTY, 17TH-18TH CENTURY THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The censer is cast with straight flaring sides supported on four The ruyi-shaped head is inlaid in silver with two dragons
bracket feet and flanked by a pair of angular handles, embellished contesting a flaming pearl amidst clouds, the arched shaft inlaid
with gilt splashes of irregular sizes. The base is cast with an with the attributes of the Eight Daoist Immortals within quatrefoil
cartouches reserved on a ground of wan fret above the ruyi-shaped
apocryphal four-character Xuande mark. tip, with a six-character Qianlong seal mark within a rectangular
4 6 in. (11.9 cm.) wide, Japanese wood box
inlaid in silver wire on the reverse of the shaft, above a twelve-
HK$120,000-150,000 US$16,000-19,000 character inscription in archaistic script.
20 in. (50.8 cm.) long, box
清十七/十八世紀 銅灑金馬槽爐 HK$200,000-300,000 US$26,000-39,000
底鑄「宣德年製」寄托款。 PROVENANCE
Ji Zhen Zhai Collection

EXHIBITED
The University of Pennsylvania Archaeology and Anthropology
Museum, Philadelphia, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, 14 March
1998-3 January 1999

LITERATURE
Fang Jing Pei, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, New York/Tokyo,
1997, p. 139, fig. 139
Compare to two nearly identical sceptres with Qianlong marks, one
is in the British Museum, accession number: 1985,1216.1; the other
in the Victoria & Albert Museum, illustrated by R. Kerr, Later Chinese
Bronzes, London, 1990, p. 55, no. 40. The inscription inlaid on the back
is described as a series of puns that play on the expression ruyi (as you
wish).

2905

166