QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
LENGTH: 19CM
The highly metallic pitted lingbi stone is decorated with naturally formed jagged cliffs terminating in one point and resting on a Suzhou-style hongmu stand. The rock is overall black with dark brown and grey inclusions. The wooden collector’s box is inscribed 梅軒珍藏 “Kept as a Treasure in Prunus Lodge”’.
Lingbi stone comes from Lingbi county in northeast Anhui. The box and box inscription calligraphy are Japanese and date from the Meiji era (1868-1912), which strongly suggest that the rock once belonged to Sato- Noryoshi 佐藤憲欽 (1826-1893), better known as Sato - Baiken 佐藤梅軒 a clansman of the Kameda 亀田藩 domain (present-day Akita 秋田 prefecture) who became an eminent Confucian scholar of the late Edo and Meiji eras. He wrote historical works in Kanbun (classical Chinese prose) and Kanshi (Chinese classical verse) and his collected poetry was published in 1885 as the Baiken shisho- 梅軒詩鈔 (Drafts of Poems from Prunus Lodge) in two fascicles.
PROVENANCE
A Japanese Private Collection
Sato- Noryoshi 佐藤憲欽 (1826-1893)
清代 黑靈壁石山子
