Description: A CHINESE CARVED IVORY ‘GOAT HERD’ BRUSH REST. Qing Dynasty. Carved to depict a figure between two goats beneath a pine tree, beside overhanging rocks, 9cm long. 清 象牙雕牧羊圖筆擱 Huang Chuping was a goat herd who together with his brother became the immortals Er Huang Jun, and the source of the phrase chi shi cheng yang (turning the stones into goats by shouting), an idiom for describing miraculous occurrences. For an ivory brush rest with a different figurative mountainous scene see Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, 1984, cat no 144, p 135. Notes: Asian Art