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Lot Essay
The inscription on one scroll weight is based on that of a Han dynasty tile, possibly from the collection of Prime Minister Juan-Yuan, a native of I-Cheng, and may be translated as 'passing on wealth and high position from generation to generation'. The second scroll weight bears an inscription found on a stirrup in Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain).
Although scroll weights take many forms, such as small carvings and jade pebbles, long wooden weights of the present form were generally used for holding open books or handscrolls. Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645), the influential late Ming tastemaker and author of the famous Changwu Ji (Treatise on Superfluous Things), remarked that there were also 'some which are hollow, in which knives and hole-punchers [for bookbinding] are kept'.
Although scroll weights take many forms, such as small carvings and jade pebbles, long wooden weights of the present form were generally used for holding open books or handscrolls. Wen Zhenheng (1585-1645), the influential late Ming tastemaker and author of the famous Changwu Ji (Treatise on Superfluous Things), remarked that there were also 'some which are hollow, in which knives and hole-punchers [for bookbinding] are kept'.