CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, XVIIIEME SIECLE

This type of ivory decoration comprised of incised lines filled with black ink or lacquer to resemble ink painting has a long history in China. A rare Ming dynasty ivory brushpot decorated with an incised design of the 'Three Friends of Winter', preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, Gongyi meishu bian 11 Zhu, mu, ya, jiao, qi, Beijing, 1987, p. 78, no, 90. In the Qing dynasty there were two versions of this style. One of these had the fine lines of decoration against an uncolored or tinted ground. The other version had a dark, usually black or red lacquer ground on which the designs appeared in reserve with fine line details. An example of this latter type of decoration can be seen on an ivory table screen dated to AD 1771 in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, illustrated in Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, London, 1984, p. 146, no. 162.
Compare the present pair with the one sold by Christie's London, 9 November 2010, lot 62.