A RARE PAIR OF SCHOLARS INK CAKES QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

modelled as immortals, both wearing loosely fitting robes, one holding a lotus in her right hand and a vase in her left and standing on a dragon fish, the other holding a musical wind instrument standing on the back of a tiger, inscribed to the underside of each

Spink & Son, 1970's.

 

Compare a pair of ink cakes modelled as Shoulao, the Daoist God of Longevity, and Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, offered in these rooms, 13th May 1988, lot 426.

The inscriptions on each figure read 'Shexian in Anhui province. Supervised by Cao Sugong, Yao Jianming'. Cao Sugong (active 1615-89) was a famous ink making master in Huizhou, Anhui province, who together with Wang Jinsheng, Wang Jie'an, and Hu Kaiwen, active during the Qianlong period, were praised as the 'Four Grand Scholar-Inkmakers'.