QIANLONG SILVER-INLAID SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Details

A SILVER-INLAID IRON RUYI SCEPTRE
QIANLONG SILVER-INLAID SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The ruyi-shaped head is inlaid in silver with two dragons contesting a flaming pearl amidst clouds, the arched shaft inlaid with the attributes of the Eight Daoist Immortals within quatrefoil cartouches reserved on a ground of wan fret above the ruyi-shaped tip, with a six-character Qianlong seal mark within a rectangular inlaid in silver wire on the reverse of the shaft, above a twelve-character inscription in archaistic script.
20 in. (50.8 cm.) long, box

Provenance

Ji Zhen Zhai Collection

Literature

Fang Jing Pei, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, New York/Tokyo, 1997, p. 139, fig. 139

Exhibited

The University of Pennsylvania Archaeology and Anthropology Museum, Philadelphia, Treasures of the Chinese Scholar, 14 March 1998-3 January 1999

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Compare to a nearly identical sceptre with Qianlong mark in the British Museum, accession number: 1985,1216.1. The inscription inlaid on the back is described as a series of puns that play on the expression ruyi (as you wish).

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