 |
|
Home |
|
A Bamboo Wrist Rest – Carved Figures - Qing browse these categories for related items... All Items: Antiques:Regional Art: Pre 1900: item # 860063 Please refer to our stock # ICHI 1931 when inquiring.
Ichiban Japanese & Oriental Antiques Post Office Box 395 Marion, CT 06444-0395 203.272.7392 Guest Book $795.00 |
|
||||||||||
|
A Chinese bamboo wrist rest for the scholars table – used to keep his arm from smearing the ink. This fine piece has a low relief design that was made by carving away the under layer of the design and then detailing the top layer with a design using perfect carving technique. (Bamboo is a soft material so executing a design using this technique is much more delicate and difficult that carving the design into the bamboo from the outside to inside. ) The rest has a design of two boys playing together – the boy on the left is holding a lingzhi fungus, which is also called the plant of long life or the plant of immortality; a symbol of longevity. The other boy holds a gourd from which have emerged five bats. The bat in Chinese art is a symbol of happiness and longevity, and the word for happiness, is pronounced the same way as the word for bat. According to legend, bats were able to live for a thousand years One bat symbolized happiness, two bats represented redoubled good fortune and five bats represented the Five Blessings (a long life, riches, health, love of virtue, and a natural death.) The Five Bats are called The Wu Fu, or Five Bats of Happiness. The wrist rest measures 8 ½” long by 3 ½” wide and the arch is ¾” deep. It is in excellent condition with no chips or cracks – nice patina. We date the piece to the Qing Dynasty, circa 1825-1875. A superb addition to any collection of Chinese scholar art. |
|||||||||||
|
