清十八世紀 白玉高士訪友圖插屏

The compact size of the present screen would have made it ideal for the scholar's table, and it is perhaps due to this particular function that screens of this type often depict scenes of immortals, scholars, or the refined pleasures of the literati class. The tranquil subject matter of scholars in a mountainous landscape would have provided stimulus for the scholar upon whose table it was placed. It has been suggested that table screens may have drawn inspiration from the cut and polished plaques of figured white marble which were traditionally framed and hung in a scholar's studio.

Compare the scholarly subject matter depicted on two imperially inscribed white jade table screens dated to the Qing dynasty, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1997, pp. 198-99, no. 68, and pp. 200-201, no. 69. See, also, a white jade table screen of slightly smaller size, dated to the Qianlong period (1736-1795), carved with a similar scene of scholars and their attendant carrying a qin amidst pine trees and inscribed with a poem describing the scene, sold at Christie's, London, 10 November 2015, lot 135.