AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE
AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE
AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE
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AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE
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AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE

KANGXI PERIOD, CYCLICAL BINGXU YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 1706 AND OF THE PERIOD

Details
AN EXTREMELY RARE INSCRIBED DUAN INKSTONE
KANGXI PERIOD, CYCLICAL BINGXU YEAR, CORRESPONDING TO 1706 AND OF THE PERIOD
The rectangular inkstone is carved on one vertical side with a poem, signed Xu Yu, recounting his journey of acquiring this inkstone from Duan County, Guangdong province, while the opposite side is carved with a poem, signed Ruan Yuan, extolling the virtues of the stone. The hollow base is carved in high relief with seven cylinders of varying heights, each centred with an 'eye'.
7 in. (17.7 cm.) long, wood stand, jichimu wood cover, Japanese double wood boxes
Provenance
Murata Kokoku (1831-1912)
Su Zhu An Collection, Kyoto
Exhibited
The Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, SENCHA: Its Beauty and Spirit, Seeking after SEIFU, the purity of mind like a bracing breeze, Osaka, 23 September-3 November 1997, Catalogue, no. 235

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Lot Essay

Xu Yu, whose exact dates are unknown, was a scholar-official during the Shunzhi/Kangxi period. He studied poetry after the renowned scholar and writer Wang Shizhen (1634-1711), and was known for composing chijue, seven-character, poems as attested by the example inscribed on the current inkstone.

Ruan Yuan (1764-1849) is widely recognised as the most celebrated and multi-talented scholar of the Qing dynasty. Born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, Ruan Yuan passed his jinshi examination in 1789, and was subsequently appointed to the Hanlin Academy. Known as a highly accomplished calligrapher, painter and seal carver, Ruan Yuan is especially famous for his wide range of research and publications, such as Chouren zhuan (Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians), and for editing the Shisanjing zhushu (Commentaries and Notes on the Thirteen Classics) for the Qianlong emperor.

According to the inscription on the cover of the Japanese wood box, signed by Murata Tokoku and dated to 1913, the current inkstone was formerly in the collection of Murata Kokoku, a Japanese painter during the late Edo period and the beginning of Meiji period who travelled to China three times in his life time.

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