QUING, 18TH CENTURY
LENGTH OF BOX: 15.8CM
LENGTH OF INKSTONE: 14CM
The inkstone is carved out of an uneven section of duan stone, slightly sloped forming a recessed inkwell. The sides are slightly unpolished revealing the natural character of the stone. The back of the inkstone has an inscription which can be translated as:
| 產南粵路五千 | Created in Southern Guangzhou, where a five thousand li journey |
| 珠江上綠榕天 | Took me to the Pearl River under a green banyan sky. |
| 春帆客載汝還 | This springtime sail traveler now takes you back home, |
| 文筆快下水船 | Writing as fast as my downstream boat goes. |
Jin Nong ming Chunfan shuwu yan 金壽門銘 春颿書屋硯 “Inscription by Jin Shoumen for the Springtime Sail Study Inkstone”
Huang Songshi shu 黃松石書 “Calligraphy done by Huang Songshi”
The text is included in Jin Nong’s Dongxinzhai yanming 冬心齋硯銘 “Inkstone Inscriptions from Winter Heart Studio”, Dongxin xiansheng zazhu 冬心先生雜著 “Miscellaneous Writings by Mr. Winter Heart”, 5a (Xiling wubuyi yizhu 西泠五布衣遺著 “Literary Remains of Five Commoners from Xiling” ed.) Xiling is a district located at the southwest foot of Gushan 孤山 above the West lake, Hangzhou, a place with which Jin Nong was associated.
The stone is deep purplish brown in tone with a light patch within the grinding surface and is fitted inside an original lacquered wooden box and cover.
Shoumen 壽門is the personal name of Jin Nong 金農 (1687-1763), a native of Renhe 仁和 (present-day Hangzhou), sobriquet Dongxin 冬心 (Winter Heart), was a major painter-scholar of the mid-Qing period. See Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian 中國美術家人名辭典, 559c-560a. Songshi 松石 is the sobriquet of Huang Shugu 黃樹榖 (1701-1751), also a native of Renhe (present-day Hangzhou), prominent poet, landscape, orchid and bamboo painter, and noted calligrapher. See Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian 中國美術家人名辭典, 1164b.
清十八世紀 金農銘黃松石書並刻隨型端石硯
