Page 112 - Bonham's Asian Art London November 2015

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TWO BOXWOOD FIGURES OF
IMMORTALS
18th/19th century
The first figure modelled as an elderly scholar
wearing long robes and rattan shoes, his
left arm raised to pick his nose with a small
stick, seated on a rocky plinth below a hard
stone embellished tree, waited on by small
attendant holding a wine cup; the second
figure similarly situated but modelled as a
portly gentleman throwing his hands up, his
expression one of anger.
Each approximately: 21.5cm (8 1/2in) high (2).

£3,000 - 5,000 271
CNY29,000 - 48,000 A CARVED BOXWOOD ‘PRUNUS’ RUYI
HK$35,000 - 59,000 20th century
An Immortal seated below a tree with his Deeply carved and pierced as a gnarled
attendants is an oft-seen composition in prunus branch terminating in two large,
wood and bamboo carvings of the Early Ming blossoming flowerheads, the shaft flanked by
to Mid-Qing Dynasty, compare with a figure, two further blossoming tendrils. 24.5cm (9
17th century, illustrated in I. Yee, Chinese 5/8in)
Bamboo Carving: Part I Hong Kong 1978, p.
154, no. 14. Also compare the first figure with £500 - 600
a bamboo of an ‘old man picking his ear’, CNY4,800 - 5,800
18th century, in ibid., p. 411, no. 136. HK$5,900 - 7,100

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