Page 98 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art November 2018

213

213 Y
A LARGE DUAN STONE ‘CARP LEAPING THE DRAGON GATE’
SCREEN
Qing Dynasty
212 The finely carved rectangular duan plaque depicting a carp jumping
through a gate amidst waves and rocks, beneath a dragon in the
clouds chasing a pearl, fitted wood stand carved with ruyi scrolls.
212 27cm (10 5/8in) wide x 30cm (11 4/5in) long. (2).
A VERY FINE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF THE IMMORTAL LAN
CAIHE £2,000 - 3,000
17th/18th century CNY18,000 - 27,000
Skilfully carved, holding a woven basket of flowers, wearing a richly
incised layered robe tied at the waist suspending a jade pendant, and 清 端石鯉魚躍龍門硯屏
with an animal-skin-like cape worn around the shoulder and a ruyi
necklace, her face with delicate features and her hair painted in black Provenance: a distinguished English private collection
drawn up behind a tiara with long ends that trail down onto the back
and with flowers in the tiara, traces of golden pigment. 來源：顯貴英國私人收藏
22.5cm (8 6/7in) high.
The theme of carp and dragons, as in the present lot, originates from
£6,000 - 8,000 a legend that a carp which could leap the falls of the Yellow River at
CNY54,000 - 72,000 Dragon Gate would be transformed into a dragon. The motif thus
became synonymous with hopes for success or victory.
十七/十八世紀 壽山石藍采和執花籃立像 Duan stone was produced in Guangdong Province, and got its name
This figure depicts Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals, who is from Duan Prefecture. With the lifting of Imperial control over the
choicest of Duan quarries in the early Qing dynasty, a flurry of private
associated with the attribute of a basket of flowers. A genderless
character in Daoist stories, Lan Caihe, however, is usually depicted mining activities ensued in the 18th century and the stone become
more available and popular to scholars and gentry into the late Qing
as a female figure similar to Guanyin from the Qing dynasty onwards. for use as ink stones and also table screens; see D.Ko, The Social Life
Compare with a soapstone figure of Guanyin, sold at Sotheby’s Hong of Inkstones: Artisans and Scholars in Early Qing China, Seattle, 2017,
Kong, 24-25 November 2014, lot 1202.
pp.58-61.
For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
96 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.