A Chinese nut boat sculpture, with poem.
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Intricately carved with attendants fanning under the awning and passengers looking out, rendered with openable windows, the underside incised with a poem and a cyclical dating. Length approximately 4 cm.
Chips, crack due to dryness of the material, one window shade misssing.
Exhibitions
Compare with one sold at Sothebys; SCHOLARLY ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF MR AND MRS GERARD HAWTHORN, lot no 37.
Compare a carved walnut, the shell worked in high relief with a design of figures and dragons amongst a flower and rock landscape, included in the exhibition The Minor Arts of China IV, Spink and Son Ltd., London, 1989, cat. no. 28; and a pair of finely carved walnut-shell hand exercisers illustrated in Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 1986, pl. 259. See also another olive-stone carving of a sampan by Gusheng, sold in these rooms, 2nd June 2016, lot 77, from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat collection.
Literature
the vogue for miniature crafts, including carving on olive, peach, walnut and various other fruit stones was started during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor and remained popular throughout the Qing and Republican era. Examples of imperial miniature craft are illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Miniature Craft in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1971, pls. 1-50, with an introduction to its history, pp. 78-9.