each with a circular and square marble plaque with black and gray veining evocative of ethereal landscapes shrouded in swirling mists and clouds, each marble plaque incised with a four character inscription indicating the scene being invoked, and signed either Shixian or Ruan Yuan with one seal of the artist, all within molded borders, framed

Sotheby's New York, 8th April 1988, lot 469.

According to the Zhongguo meishujia renming cidian (Dictionary of Chinese Artists' Names), Shanghai, 1985, p. 175, Shixian is the sobriquet of Qing dynasty painter Bai Enyou who graduated from the Hanlin academy in 1847.  The same source, ibid. p. 467, lists Ruan Yuan (1764-1849), also known as Ruan Boyuan, as being a painter and carver.