SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)

Details

A SHE RECTANGULAR INKSTONE AND COVER
SONG DYNASTY (AD 960-1279)
The flat cover is carved in shallow relief with a court lady dressed in sumptuous robes holding a sheet of paper in one hand and a brush in the other. She stands in an elegant interior, with a low table behind her and a tall oil lamp and drapery tied with tasseled cords at one side. The grinding surface is gently rounded and slopes down to form a water well at one end, all enclosed by a narrow raised frame and raised on short bracket legs. The smoothly polished stone is of an even steel grey color.
6 in. (15.2 cm.) long, cloth box

Provenance

J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4593.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Margaret Gristina (葛曼琪) Senior Specialist, VP

asianartny@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

An inkstone and cover of similar form and with similar bracket legs, carved with foliage on the cover, was excavated from a Northern Song tomb at Macheng, Hubei, and illustrated in Kaogu, 1965, No. 1, p. 24, plate 10. See, also, a two-part Song-dynasty inkstone and cover of rectangular form, carved in shallow relief with a swan-goose amidst water weeds, illustrated by S. Kwan in Chinese Inkstones, 2005, no. 68, p. 212.

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