masterfully worked as the immortal sitting on a pierced rocky outcrop with the right hand grasping a gnarled leafy branch bearing two peaches, and the left hand resting on one knee, the well-defined face with a wide smile and a long beard, wearing a long loose robe falling into voluminous folds, tied at the waist with a double-gourd at the back, wood stand (2)

Peter Moores (1932-2016) 爵士收藏
倫敦蘇富比2011年11月9日，編號396

This charming bamboo figure depicts Dongfang Shuo, the Han dynasty scholar official and court jester to Emperor Wu. Also known as Manqian, Dongfang Shuo is a historical figure from Yanci, Pingyuan, Shandong province, who became legendary for stealing peaches from Xiwangmu’s (Queen Mother of the West) garden, thereby giving himself the power of becoming immortal.

Related bamboo carvings of Dongfang Shuo include two sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, the first, from the collection of Mr and Mrs Gerard Hawthorne, 3rd December 2008, lot 2324, and the other 1st April 1992, lot 934; a slightly smaller example in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, included in the Museum’s exhibition Literati Spirit. Art of Chinese Bamboo Carving, Shanghai, 2012, cat. no. 51, together with another smaller example signed Cai Shimin, pl. 59; two sold in our Hong Kong rooms, one from the Water Pine and Stone Retreat Collection, 4th April 2012, lot 127, and the other from the collection of Robert H. Blumenfield, 7th April 2015, lot 3025; and a much smaller figure published in Ip Yee and Laurence C.S. Tam, Chinese Bamboo Carving, Hong Kong, 1978, vol. I, pl. 123. See a further related carving but attributed to the late Ming dynasty, also from the collection of Mr and Mrs Gerard Hawthorne, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3rd December 2008, lot 2320.