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Lot Essay
The carver has made exceptionally good use of the material using the natural spotted markings to depict traces of hair on the bald heads of the figures. Compare to a stylistically similar carving of the hehe erxian attributed to the style of the Feng school, illustrated by H.L. Huang in The Exquisite Art of Bamboo Carving, Taipei, 2007, pp.182-183. Compare also to a similarly rendered carving of a drunken immortal with a Feng Shibin signature in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, illustrated in Bamboo, Wood and Ivory Carvings, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 46, no. 44.
The hehe erxian, or the Two Immortals of Harmony and Unity, were believed to preside over happy marriages, and are adaptations of two famous poet-monks of the Tang dynasty, Hanshan and Shide. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the twins were usually depicted holding a box he and a lotus stem, he forming the rebus for harmony, he and unity, he.
The hehe erxian, or the Two Immortals of Harmony and Unity, were believed to preside over happy marriages, and are adaptations of two famous poet-monks of the Tang dynasty, Hanshan and Shide. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the twins were usually depicted holding a box he and a lotus stem, he forming the rebus for harmony, he and unity, he.