February** Dynamic Incentive Program
2489 early Qing Dynasty agarwood relief carved poems Songshan visiting friends picture pen holder.
Size: Inscription: Don't dare to ask the bird when you go to the door, why do you need to ask the owner to see the bamboo.
Height: 15cm Length: 177cm width: 138cm weight: 745g
Estimate: 1,600,000 3,500,000
Price realised: RMB3,220,000 (including commission).
*: Scholar's Toys and Antiques Miscellaneous Items Special Session (2) (Xiling Seal Society 2019 Autumn Auction).
Description: Agarwood is a precious spice, which is a resinous substance secreted by plants in the family Ruixiangaceae, which takes decades or even hundreds of years to form. And the rotten wood is fine and dry, and the large material is extremely rare. This pen holder is made of rare large pieces of high-quality agarwood, which is very rare. There is an agarwood carved pen holder of comparable size in the old collection of the Qing Palace in the Palace Museum in Beijing, which shows its noble status.
The color of the pen holder is dull, the pulp is thick, the whole instrument is made with the shape of the wood, the whole is wide and narrow at the bottom, oblique straight wall, flat bottom. The edge of the mouth follows the natural twists and turns, which is interesting. The outer wall is decorated with high-relief landscape figures, but the clouds are churning, the rocks are craggy, and the pine and bamboo have their own postures. In the picture, a Gao Shi is standing in front of the house as a waiting, and next to the picture, another Gao Shi is looking for a way, which shows that an elegant gathering is about to begin. Looking up, you can see that there are also houses on the top of the mountain, hidden in the clouds and mist, like the dwelling of immortals, which makes people think about it. The upper end of the pen holder is engraved with a line of calligraphy: "When you come to the door, you don't dare to ask the bird, why do you need to ask the master to see the bamboo." This sentence comes from the famous Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei's "Spring Day and Pei Di Visited Lu Yiren in Xinchangli", which shows the friendship between Gao Shi who is as light as water, but knows each other. At the end of the poem, there are two gold seals, and the handwriting is no longer legible.