AN EXQUISITE AND RARE BAMBOO 'GOOSE' WATER VESSEL1750 – 1900Unusually and masterfully carved in the form of a roosting goose, its beak tucked underneath its wing but its eyes open, the smooth depression formed by the upper diaphragm, to one side of the mouth of the vessel, inscribed in engraved regular script with amentary on the piece, followed by 'Made by Muyun and inscribed by Yi'an', with a seal in ancient bronze script on one wing of the bird,Yi'an baoyong ('For the treasured use of Yi'an'), supported on a protruding oval footrim, the base engraved in seal scriptHu Muyun zhi ('Made by Hu Muyun'), with a white jade spoon in the form oflingzhi, 18th/19th century, fitted box.10.3cm (4in) wide (3).Provenance: 1750 – 1900年 竹根雕鵝形水丞「胡牧雲製」款連十八/十九世紀 白玉靈芝形勺Provenance:Honeychurch Antiques, Hong Kong, April 1983Published:G.Tsang and H.Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 2011, no.56Exhibited:Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong, 24 October – 13 December 1986 來源:香港Honeychurch Antiques，1983年4月出版:曾柱昭及莫士撝，《文玩萃珍》，香港，2011年，編號56展覽:馮平山博物館，香港，1986年10月24至12月13日The poetic inscriptionposed by Yi'an, presumably, states that the piece of lower culm of bamboo was already strangely shaped when introduced to the carver, that it is intended as a vessel for the scholar's studio, and that if Wang Xizhi (identified under his alternate name, Youjun) were alive to see it, he might value it at more than one thousand pieces of gold. Yi'an was the zi of the famous late-Ming painter, Xiang Shengmo (1597-1658) from Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, and while it is conceivable that it was he who inscribed the pot, and then kept it for his own treasured use, the degree of patination on the surface of the piece suggests it is perhaps not so early. Another possibility, perhaps more likely chronologically, but otherwise equally unlikely for reasons given in Arts from the Scholar's Studio, is that it refers to Yi Da'an (1874-1941), the Guangdong scholar, seal carver, artist and poet, who apparently sometimes omitted his middle name when signing. Wang Xizhi (Youjun - 321-379) was the author of the Lanting Preface, one of the most influential pieces of calligraphy in the Chinese culture (see ibid., no.28) and was a legendary fancier of geese, to the point where in later centuries practically any reference to geese would bring to mind this scholar, and if a figure was depicted with geese in art, it was likely to be him.本品刻文大意為：此竹雕的原材本來就非常奇特，現作爲文房用品，假若王羲之（在這裏以其別名「右軍」稱呼）若是親眼看見此物，或許會說它價值千金。晚明書畫名家項聖謨（1597-1658年）號易庵，浙江嘉興人，本品刻文或出自他手，後來收為己用，然而觀察表面包漿，則顯示本品年代或在晚明之後。「易厂」亦有可能是清代文人易大厂（1874-1941年），其為廣東人、擅篆刻、工藝及詩詞，有時以「易厂」署名。就時間而言，此論或更合理，詳情...