Lot 47 清乾隆　黑地剔紅雅集圖筆筒 | A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER 'SCHOLARS' BRUSHPOT, BITONG

清乾隆　黑地剔紅雅集圖筆筒 | A RARE CARVED CINNABAR LACQUER 'SCHOLARS' BRUSHPOT, BITONG

Qianlong

HKD 400,000

HKD 400000 - 600000

未知

未知

Qianlong
The cylindrical vessel exquisitely carved through thick layers of cinnabar lacquer with a continuous scene of scholars engaged in elegant pursuits, one scholar painting an orchid on a scroll, his brush dipped into an inkstone, as another bearded scholar looks on, beside them a boy attendant carrying books, another scholar seated cross-legged while strumming the guqin, further scholars arriving by crossing a bridge, all amidst various trees including wutong, bamboo and pine, and gnarled rocks, with the water and sky carved through the cinnabar layers to reveal the black lacquer beneath, fitted box.
13cm (5in) high. (2).
Footnotes
清乾隆　黑地剔紅雅集圖筆筒
Provenance:
Sotheby's New York, 15 March 2017, lot 579
Published and Illustrated:
Zhang Rong, ed., The Creation of Natural Immensity and Grandeur: The Yang Ming Shan Fang Collection of Lacquer from Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing, 2020, pp.240-241, no.74
紐約蘇富比，2017年3月15日，拍品編號579
張榮主編，《巧法造化：陽明山房藏宋元明清漆器》，北京，2020年，頁240至241，編號74
The subject of scholars engaged in refined pursuits belongs to the longstanding pictorial tradition of the , or 'elegant gathering', in which literati are shown meeting in cultivated surroundings to pursue artistic and intellectual interests. Such gatherings provided an ideal setting for the Four Arts of the Scholar: , the seven-stringed zither; , the game of chess or ; , calligraphy; and , painting. These activities were regarded as essential expressions of the cultivated scholar, and their representation on the present brushpot reinforces its association with the refined world of literati culture.
Compare with a very similar carved cinnabar lacquer brushpot, mid-Qing dynasty, in the Qing Court Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, carved with the seven sages of the bamboo grove, illustrated in , Hong Kong, 2006, pp.64-65, no.42. See also a carved cinnabar lacquer brushpot, Qianlong, carved with Wang Xizhi exchanging calligraphy for geese, in the Palace Museum, Taipei (acc.no.zhongqi000038). Another carved cinnabar lacquer brushpot with scholars in elegant pursuits, late 18th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in , New York, 1991, p.109, no.44.
See a related carved cinnabar lacquer 'Wang Xizhi' brushpot, Qianlong, which was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 November 2020, lot 2835. Compare also with a carved cinnabar lacquer brushpot with scholars, Qianlong, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2010, lot 2173. Another cinnabar lacquer brushpot, Qianlong, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 April 2010, lot 1931.
Compare also another Qianlong period carved red on black lacquer brushpot, but depicting the Eighteen Arhats, still in the Yang Ming Shan Fang collection, published in , op.cit., pp. 236-239, no.73.
以雅集為題，源遠流長，琴棋書畫四藝並見，飾於筆筒之上，尤為宜適。
參考北京故宮博物院清宮舊藏清中期剔紅竹林七賢圖筆筒，收入《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集：元明漆器》，香港，2006年，頁64-65，編號42。台北故宮博物院也有乾隆剔紅羲之愛鵝圖例可資對比（中漆000038）。另可參考紐約大都會藝術博物館存十八世紀晚期剔紅高士雅集圖筆筒，圖見《East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection》，紐約，1991年，頁109，編號44。
拍賣例子則有乾隆剔紅書聖羲之圖筆筒，售於香港佳士得2020年11月30日，拍品編號2835；乾隆剔紅高士圖筆筒，售於香港蘇富比2010年10月7日，拍品編號2173；以及另一乾隆例，香港蘇富比2010年4月7日，拍品編號1931。
陽明山房收藏中也有一黑地剔紅十八羅漢圖筆筒，可作參考，收入《巧法造化》，同前註，頁236-239，編號73。