A MALACHITE LOTUS LEAF-FORM INK PALETTE

QING DYNASTY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

LENGTH: 12.1CM

The ink palette is worked into a lotus leaf borne on a short curved stem, the leaf with furled edges curling inwards to a flat top. The reverse of the leaf is meticulously carved with a network of veins accented by occasional ‘worm-eaten’ holes, incised to the lower right with two seal characters reading Ding Di 定邸 (“Ding Mansion”). The natural stone is of a bright emerald-green tone suffused with a distinctive network of concentric rings in light and dark green tones. The zitan stand is naturalistically carved in openwork with further worm-eaten leaves interspersed with arrowheads, millets and lotus pods issuing from bundled curled stems.

Ding Di 定邸, which may be translated as Ding Mansion, was the residence of the Manchu official Zai Quan 載銓 (1794-1854), a great grandson of the Qianlong Emperor and a renowned collector of works of art during the Daoguang and early Xianfeng periods. Zai Quan was the fifth Prince Ding 定郡王 . He attained the highest positions in the central government, including President of the Board of Ceremony 禮部尚書 and President of the board of Works 工部尚書 .

SIMILAR EXAMPLE

A closely related example similarly accompanied by its original hongmu stand, is among the collections of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong zhenbao 故宮珍寶 , Beijing, 2004, p. 155.