A CHINESE PAKTONG INK BOX AND COVER

19th Century, of square form, the cover engraved with the text of the Lanting Xu, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, signed and dated to the autumn month of a gengshen year. 20cm square, The text engraved on the cover is the Lanting Xu, the Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, written by Wang Xizhi (303-361) in 353 to introduce the verses made at a spring purification gathering of scholars at the Orchid Pavilion at Shanyin in Kuaiji, present-day Shaoxing. The original manuscript is lost, but the preface is the most celebrated work in the history of Chinese calligraphy and has been copied and transcribed ever since. The signature records that the box was carved by Ansheng in the autumn month of a gengshen year, 1860

Estimate:£200

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