Lot Essay
Cf. a group of similar carved nuts and seeds in the National Palace Museum in Taibei, illustrated in The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art, No. 24, March 1985, pp. 108-110.
Details
A FINE GROUP OF CARVED NUTS AND SEEDS
QING DYNASTY
Comprising a walnut carved with the monkey-god and dozens of smaller monkeys clinging from rocky outcrops and fruiting branches below palms, with the inscription Hua Guo Shan; pits and seeds carved with either deities, dignitaries, young boys, skulls, precious objects or boats; four rosaries, one with beads carved as Luohan, one carved with differing scenes of scholars in landscape settings, one with boys below trees, and one inscribed with sutras; a strand of beads with each of the zodiac animals; a pair of large sead pods with incised figures of ladies and long inscriptions to the reverse; a small bamboo seal carved with a quail amid flowers; boxwood and bamboo carvings of Buddhistic lions and frogs; an octagonal bead with landscape sceens; a figure of Buddha within a bamboo case
the largest 1 5/8in. (4cm.) high (105)
QING DYNASTY
Comprising a walnut carved with the monkey-god and dozens of smaller monkeys clinging from rocky outcrops and fruiting branches below palms, with the inscription Hua Guo Shan; pits and seeds carved with either deities, dignitaries, young boys, skulls, precious objects or boats; four rosaries, one with beads carved as Luohan, one carved with differing scenes of scholars in landscape settings, one with boys below trees, and one inscribed with sutras; a strand of beads with each of the zodiac animals; a pair of large sead pods with incised figures of ladies and long inscriptions to the reverse; a small bamboo seal carved with a quail amid flowers; boxwood and bamboo carvings of Buddhistic lions and frogs; an octagonal bead with landscape sceens; a figure of Buddha within a bamboo case
the largest 1 5/8in. (4cm.) high (105)