A BAMBOO-ROOT FIGURE OF A DAOIST IMMORTAL QING DYNASTY, 17TH / 18TH CENTURY

well carved with the figure seated on intricately carved pierced rockwork forming his seat and armrest, the left arm stroking his beard, the face with a serene and contemplative expression, wearing a hat and long-flowing robes, beside a basket filled with lingzhi and other medicinal plants on the ground beside him, the stippled surface of a rich brown color, with a seventeen-character inscription to the base

Sotheby's London, 12th May 2010, lot 82. 

The inscription to the base may be translated as 'residing in the Mountain of the South and returning at sunset, tasting hundreds of herbs and curing patients'. 

Compare a similar figure from the Qing Court collection, illustrated in Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings. The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 42. Another from the Blumenfield Collection was first sold in our London rooms, 2nd December 1997, lot 86, and more recently in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th April 2015, lot 3006.