清 古書奇字玉燈一對|One of a pair of lamps with archaic-style calligraphy

Unknown

second half 18th century · Jade (nephrite), wood, and ivory · Asian Art

The removable sides of the lamps are jade plaques in carved wood frames, each inscribed at the top with a group of nine characters that can be read in any order. The various readings are transcribed in the middle of the plaques in different fanciful "archaic" scripts, with a note at the bottom giving the supposed source and date of each particular script. The main frame of the lamps are of zitan, a fine grained hardwood, and the ornaments are of boxwood an ivory. (One of a pair; see 20015.500.5.2)

Artist

Unknown

Date

second half 18th century

Medium

Jade (nephrite), wood, and ivory

Culture

China

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015