十七世紀 趙南星製鐵錯銀「萬壽無疆」如意 《趙南星製》款

背面：
永壽無畺。大吉羊。延年益壽。「延年益壽」、「永壽無畺」印

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.