AN INSCRIBED SILVER-INLAID 'LONGEVITY' IRON RUYI SCEPTRE MADE FOR ZHAO NANXING, 17TH CENTURY

the head of formalised lingzhi shape arching over the curving body to terminate in a lingzhi-shaped tip, the front inlaid with beaten silver-wire of shou characters, the reverse with a diapered cash pattern extending from the head above blessings for longevity repeated in different styles of script, all within a border corresponding to the shape of the sceptre, including yannian yishou ('many happy returns'), yongshou wujian (‘eternal longevity without limit’), dajiyang (‘great auspiciousness’), the lower segment with the designation Zhao Nanxing zhi (‘made for Zhao Nanxing’)

Zhao Nanxing (1550-1627) was a high official minister of state, who rose to become Grand Censor. He is celebrated for his integrity and outspokenness. It seems that in 1610, Zhao Nanxing wrote a poem about a ruyi sceptre, which inspired a number of other sceptres including the current example. The poem can be translated as:

Its hook has no barb;
It is upright without giving injury.
With it, sing and dance;
If it disapproves it will break.
This is [truly] the implement of a gentleman.

It also closely relates to two other inlaid iron ruyi sceptres, dated to 1622, made by Zhang Aochun, one sold in these rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 215, from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat collection, the other in the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, Toronto, illustrated by Sheila Riddell, Dated Chinese Antiquities 600 - 1650, London, 1979, p. 148, fig. 137, where she notes that Zhang Aochun is "on record as having specialized in the making of iron ruyi sceptres, inlaid with gold and silver. One of his principal customers was the grand censor, Zhao Nanxing..."

See also a related late Ming iron sceptre with beaten silver and gold decoration, but not of the same series, illustrated by Li Chu-tsing Li and James Watt, The Chinese Scholar's Studio. Artistic Life in the Late Ming Period - an Exhibition From the Shanghai Museum, Asia Society, New York, 1987, cat. no. 67.