Page 139 - Christies March 15 2017 Fujita Museum

These small ink cakes are miniature replicas of the ten drum-shaped stones, known as Shigu
(Stone Drum), which were allegedly inscribed during the Warring States period (475-221 BC),
and discovered in the early Tang dynasty (AD 618-907). The inscriptions on the original stones, which
record royal hunting expeditions, represent a transitional style between the guzhou (‘ancient script’)
found on Shang and Zhou bronze vessels and the standardized xiaozhuan (‘small-seal’ script) used
in oficial documents of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), and is the earliest known seal-script text on
stone. The inscriptions in their full length would have been around 700 words, but only 310 words
survived.
In 1790, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the remaining 310 decipherable characters on the original
Shigu to be assembled and rearranged into ten poems and carved onto two new sets of Shigu: one set
is now located in the Guozijian (Confusion Temple and The Imperial College) in Beijing, and the other
set is in the Wenmiao (Confusian Temple) in Chengde. The inscriptions on the current inkcake set are
based on the ones carved on the Qianlong Shigu.
Compare an almost identical box and cover containing ten ink cakes in the form of the Stone Drums,
in the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
Museum - 49 - The Four Treasures of the Study - Inksticks and Writing Brushes, Hong Kong, 2005,
p. 118, no. 101. Of particular note is the fact that the interior of the Palace Museum set is lined in the
same yellow silk with a wan diaper as the present set, suggesting that the two likely came from the
same workshop.

石鼓為十塊圓石，每石用大篆体刻四言詩一首，因形似鼓，故名。關於石鼓的年代，歷來説法不一，現多認爲
是春秋戰國時秦人所作。石鼓於唐初出土於陝西鳳翔縣，經歷朝遞藏，元、明、清三代置於北京國子監。乾
隆皇帝對石鼓興趣濃厚，多次傳拓、考證，並於乾隆五十五年以石鼓所存310字重排鼓文十章，刊刻新鼓，
置於國子監及熱河文廟。本套「御製重排石鼓文墨」即以乾隆石鼓的文本縮臨而作，形式獨特，製作精良，
為乾隆時期御製墨精品。故宮博物院藏有一套御製石鼓文集錦墨，載於《故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系：文
房四寶．筆墨》，第49 冊，香港，2005 年，118頁，編號101。藤田美術館所藏石鼓墨與清宮舊藏品相比，非
惟墨錠相似，木匣、匣面題字及内襯萬字紋錦亦分毫不差，為宮廷原裝，十分珍貴。

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