An incised lacquer inkstone set, Western Han dynasty. Photo Sotheby's

of rectangular section with rounded corners, the interior of the box with two rectangular recesses to fit in the inkstone slab and grinding stone and the cover pierced with a circular opening for the knob of the grinding, the slab stone polished on one side and left rough on the underside, the top of the grinding stone lacquered in black and finely incised with a bear, the exterior of the box and cover lacquered in brownish black and further incised with a variety of animals among curling scrolls including bear, tiger, phoenix, rabbit and deer, all within a border of cross-hatched motifs, the interior of the cover and the recesses lacquered in red; the box: 20.5 by 6.6 by 2.3 cm., 8 by 2 5/8 by 7/8 in. Estimation 80,000 — 120,000 HKD

Exposition: 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer. Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 6.
Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 5.

According to Peter Lam in Layered Beauty, Hong Kong, 2010, p. 26, by the Han dynasty the Chinese made solid ink from the soot of burning wood that came as powder or pellets. Water was added to the ink pellets, which were then ground on stones sets, such as the present piece, to turn them into a liquid paste. Ink sticks that were rubbed directly against the inkstone were used much later. Lacquer inkstones have been recovered from tombs in Linyi, Shandong province and Hanjiang and Donghai in Jiangsu province, as mentioned by Lam, ibid., p. 26. Compare also an inkstone set, unearthed from a Chu tomb in Yutaishan, Jiangling in Hubei province, illustrated in Chinese Lacquer, Part I, Taipei, 1982, p. 201, fig. 9.6. See a black lacquer ink stone of square form, in the Changsha Cultural Relics Bureau, published in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, vol. 3, Fuzhou, 1998, pl. 13.

The decoration on the present inkstone is incised in a free style with flowing lines that represent air and cloud. The motif has a strong sense of movement that is enhanced by the subject matter of birds and beasts, while the outlines within the decoration are left unpainted. This decorative technique is reminiscent of the qiangjin method used much later, suggesting that what we see here is possibly the precursor to that.

Sotheby's. The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Part 1, Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2014 - www.sothebys.com