A fine Songhua inkstone, box and cover carved mark and period of Qianlong

the inkstone of irregular shape with a raised rim, hollowed at one end with an inkwell in the form of a lingzhi connected to a smaller branch in low relief, the reverse incised with the four-character mark Qianlong nianzhi ('made in the Qianlong period'), the inkstone of an attractive pale greenish-grey colour, the box of conforming shape, the yellowish skin of the sepia-coloured stone well-carved through on the cover with a scene of a cloaked figure sleeping beneath a gnarled pine tree (original fitted brocade box)

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17th November 1988, lot 250.

Songhua stone, for its colour, quality and ease of grinding the ink, was one of the preferred stones for making inkstones for the scholar's table during the Qing dynasty. Chi Jo-hsin in 'A study of the Sunghua Inkstone Tradition', Special Exhibition of Sunghua Inkstone, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1993, p. 38, notes that 'during the Qianlong period, an inventory of inkstones in the Imperial Household was compiled. Of the more than two hundred entries in the Hsi-ch'ing-yen-pu which is part of the Ssu-k'u-ch'üan-shu, six sunghua inkstones with imperial reign marks of the K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung periods are recorded, five of which are in the collection of the National Palace Museum.' 

Design on inkstones often imitated fine paintings and it is known that the Qianlong emperor commissioned his court painters to design the lids of many of his inkstones.  Shapes of the inkpool and cover also became more varied during the Qianlong emperor's reign, during which time new shapes in the form of peaches, crescent-moons and flowers were introduced alongside the traditional circular, octagonal and oblong shapes.

It is rare to find Songhua inkstones decorated with figures although two Qianlong inkstones were included ibid., pls. 56 and 69, the former carved with an official and his attendant about to cross a bridge and the latter carved with a fisherman under the moon.  See also lot 149 in this catalogue for another superbly carved Songhua inkstone and the companion to the present piece.