Footnotes

清乾隆 竹雕海水龍紋筆筒

The present lot is exceptionally rare for its rendering in the bamboo medium of the theme inspired by the celebrated Southern Song painting Nine Dragons by the prominent poet, calligrapher and artist Chen Rong (active AD1235-1258), which is now preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (accession number 17.1697), and is illustrated by T.Wu, Tales from the Land of Dragons: 1000 Years of Chinese Painting, Boston, 1997, pp.197-201.

The Qianlong emperor recorded his personal admiration for Chen's painting of the Nine Dragons hand scroll by adding an inscription and several imperial seals. Apart from praising Chen Rong's painting, he also ordered a Court painter to produce a copy of the hand scroll. Given the emperor's esteem for the artist as well as the five-clawed dragon as an imperial symbol, it is very likely that the brushpot would have been made for the imperial Court, and possibly for the personal use of the emperor.

The style developed under the Qianlong emperor's direction is recognisable for its opulence combined with precision of knifework. The present brushpot displays a high level of craftsmanship with the sharply precise and vigorous carving of the dragon. A great sense of depth is also emphasized by the varying degrees of carved relief used to depict the forceful rolling waves. It is extremely rare to find a bamboo brushpot of such unrivalled quality.

Indeed, this special genre also exists in different materials of art. For an example of a porcelain brushpot painted with a dragon and inscribed with a poem in sepia enamel, inscribed with a poem signed by Tang Ying (1682-1756), the supervisor of the imperial kiln during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, see P.Y.Lam, ed., Elegant vessels for the lofty pavilion: the Zande Lou gift of porcelain with studio marks, Hong Kong, 1993, pl.14.

龍是中國書畫傳統中典型的題材。著名以墨龍入畫的畫家有宋代陳容（活躍於1235-1258年），號所翁，福建長樂人。他擅詩文，善用水墨，以畫龍名重一時，現藏於美國波士頓博物館的《九龍圖卷》便是一例，見T.Wu著，《Tales from the Land of Dragons:1000 years of Chinese painting》，波士頓，1997年，頁197至201。後來多見此題材出現在瓷器、鼻煙壺、其他畫作等，但是以竹雕為材料的例子甚為少見，此筆筒為難得一件的上乘之作。

此器所表現出的刀法精密細膩，線條婉轉流暢，富有豐富的層次，完美地體現了乾隆一朝達至頂峰的藝術成就。眾所周知，乾隆皇帝十分欣賞陳容的《九龍圖卷》，除了卷上有乾隆帝的題跋及璽印，他也命宮廷畫師仿製此畫，因此本器很有可能出自宮廷工匠之手，為乾隆帝之用。

此一構圖也有繪於其他器物之上，如著名清代督陶官唐英（1682-1756年）監製的墨彩龍紋筆筒便是一例，現為香港中文大學文物館藏品，見林業強編，《臺閣佳器：暫得樓捐贈堂名款瓷器》，香港，1993年，圖版14。