The ink stone is carved with two dragons striding amidst scrolling clouds in pursuit of a flaming pearl, which encloses four characters, guxi tianzi ('seventy-year-old Son of Heaven'), all above of a recessed grinding surface framed on three sides with a pair of finely incised archaistic dragons. The reverse is finely carved in high relief with a luohan seated against a tree holding a fan. The sides are inscribed with The Heart Sutra, a Qianlong date corresponding to 1791, andchen Dong Gao mu shou jing shu ('respectfully carved by your servant Dong Gao').
8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm.) long, jade-inset hongmu box

Mayuyama & Co., Tokyo, 1960s and thence by descent within the family
Property from a private Japanese collection; Sold at Christie’s New York, 17-18 September 2015, lot 2058

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie's Hong Kong Limited

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

The cover of this item is subject to CITES export/import restrictions. The historical CITES paperwork for this lot is not available and it will not be possible to obtain a CITES export permit to ship this item to addresses outside Hong Kong post-sale. This item can only be shipped to addresses within Hong Kong or collected from our Hong Kong saleroom and office. Please contact the department for further information.