Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 1991, lot 491.

The ruyi is of an exceptionally large size, and made all the more vibrant by the colourful inlays. Cf. another large sceptre decorated with inlays in a very similar style to the present lot, from the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, included in the 1995 exhibition, Auspicious Ju-I Sceptres of China, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 22. A pair of smaller ruyi sceptres inlaid with a design of quails and millet is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Jadeware (III). The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 30.