Live Auction 17837Lacquer, Jade, Bronze, Ink: The Irving Collection Day Sale
AN INSCRIBED BOXWOOD FIGURE OF A SEATED SCHOLAR
Lot 1214 THE FLORENCE AND HERBERT IRVING COLLECTION

AN INSCRIBED BOXWOOD FIGURE OF A SEATED SCHOLAR

CHINA, QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY

Closed21 March 2019

Price Realised

USD 50,000

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AN INSCRIBED BOXWOOD FIGURE OF A SEATED SCHOLAR
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, 18TH-19TH CENTURY
Well carved as a scholar with wizened face holding a book in his right hand while seated beneath the overhanging branch of the log-form raft in which he sits, the sides of the raft lapped by waves, the reverse carved with five inscriptions: one reading Huiting zi ti (Huiting inscribed (this) himself), another reading jichou liu yue shi nian liushi you wu (In May of the year jichou (1769 or 1829), at the age of sixty-five)
9 ¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high

Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 30 April-2 May 1991, lot 142.
Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1992.
The Irving Collection, no. 3811.

Specialist note

This fine carving may represent the legendary Han dynasty explorer Zhang Qian shown floating down the Yangzi River in a hollowed log-boat. According to legend, Zhang is said to have traveled in search of the source of the Yangzi River, and found himself floating on the Milky Way (River of Heaven) where he caught sight of the Weaving Maiden and the Cowherd, the two mythical lovers separated by that galaxy.

The most famous representations of this theme are the silver figures in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the one formerly in the collection of Sir Percival David, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, both illustrated by Jan Chapman, The Art of Rhinoceros Horn Carving in China, London, 1999, p. 263, nos. 382 and 383. Both silver examples are inscribed with the seal of the 14th-century silversmith, Zhu Bishan, but according to Chapman, p. 264, the Cleveland raft is generally accepted as being made in the Ming dynasty, probably in the 16th century, while the Taipei raft is generally accepted as dating from the 14th century.