Page 90 - Wolly & Wallace, July 1, 2020 Chinese Works of Art UK

90 91
A RARE CHINESE SOAPSTONE ‘TOAD’ SEAL A CHINESE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF A LUOHAN
18 /19 CENTURY 18 CENTURY
TH
TH
TH
Carved as a toad sitting upon a square base, rendered with the details of the Depicted seated upon a rocky pedestal with his legs crossed, with a
amphibian’s knobbly skin, with a band of interlocking ‘T’ scrolls to the edge, ruyi-sceptre resting in his left hand, his sumptuous robes incised with lotus
the underside with nine seal script characters which read chen su lie zhang, medallions and decorated at the hem with clouds against a stylised wave
han lai shu wang, qiu, 5.5cm. ground, the stone of a pale greenish tone and with some white inclusions,
£600-1,000 the base original and of a creamy colour with pinkish inclusions, 9.1cm high
overall. (2)
Provenance: from an English private collection, Kent. £3,000-5,000
The characters form an excerpt from the Thousand
Character Classic, or Qian Zi Wen, by Zhou Xingsi. Provenance: from the collection of the late
The Thousand Character Classic is a poem which has Hon. Mrs Clive Behrens, formerly The Hon.
been used to teach children Chinese characters since the Evelina Rothschild.
sixth century. The poem is comprised of one thousand Cf. Christie’s London, 10th May 2016, lot 56
characters, with each being used only once. and also Christie’s Paris, 12th December
2018, lot 131 for related carvings.
十八/十九世紀 壽山石雕金嬋鈕方印
印文：辰宿列張。寒來暑往，秋 十八世紀 壽山石雕羅漢坐像
來源：Evelina Rothschild夫人收藏。
來源：英國肯特郡私人收藏。

88 See paragraphs 4 & 5 of our conditions of business at the back of the catalogue for additional charges on the final hammer prices