QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

The current carving is a very auspicious depiction of an immortal holding a box, from which two bats are about to be released, suggesting the immediate presence of good fortune. The immortal is carved as a boy, possibly one part of two well-known fabled characters, Hehe Erxian. A very similar bamboo carving of a boy holding a box is in the Simon Kwan Collection and illustrated in Ming and Qing Bamboo, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 297, no. 75.