15th century The rectangular top exquisitely inlaid with small and thin pieces of iridescent mother-of-pearl on black lacquer forming a scene of seven sages and five attendants gathering in a bamboo grove, a sage followed with an attendant carrying a qin walking towards to three sages playing weiqi in the centre, and two sages viewing a painting in front of a pavilion with pillars finely incised with boys holding lotus, all within a beaded frame and boarded with coin-diaper and cartouches of scrolling flowers, the high waist inlaid with cartouches of playing lions and deer reserved on multiple diapers on each side, above aprons decorated with cartouches inlaid with birds resting on branches of prunus blossom and crabapple blossom on a hexagon-diaper ground extending to four cabriole legs curved into a ruyi head, all lacquered in black and crackled finely in a network of ice-crackles, box. 49.5cm (19 1/4in) wide x 22cm (8 3/4in) deep x 17cm (6 3/4in) high. (2).Footnotes十五世紀 黑漆嵌螺鈿竹林七賢炕桌 The 'Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove' was a group of 3rd-century scholars who were disappointed with the political situation and rejected official entitlements, and often gathered in a bamboo grove to drink wine, to play qin and to discuss and compose literature. The theme was widely adopted by later artists as the subject matter for paintings, carvings, porcelain, with variations of some characters in different times, but remaining the basic composition of seven gentlemen and in a bamboo grove. Compare with a related black lacquered mother-of-pearl inlaid display stand, Yuan Dynasty, in the Nezu Institute of Fine Arts, Tokyo, which is illustrated in The Colors and Forms of Song and Yuan China: Featuring Lacquerwares, Ceramics, and Metalwares, Tokyo, 2004, pl.126. 全身黑髹，長方形檯面起擋水, 嵌錢紋錦地一周，錦地內開光嵌飾連枝卷花紋，面心以螺鈿細片嵌竹林七賢雅集圖，竹林之中有高士二人捉棋二人圍觀，二童子在侍，右邊有一高士與童子攜琴前驅，左邊竹林掩映樓台一角，樓台住上飾有童子擎蓮紋樣，樓前二高士展卷觀畫，高束腰，四柱嵌花卉，四面開光，各內嵌雙獅、雙鹿及雙馬，四周牙板以菱花紋錦地，四面開光飾綬帶鳥及喜鵲戲於海棠及梅花之間，三彎足底部捲成如意雲頭形，底面亦髹黑漆，漆面漫發冰裂紋。 竹林七賢的典故最早出現在劉義慶（403-444）的《世說新語》之《任誕》篇：「陳留阮籍，譙國嵇康，河內山濤，三人年皆相比，康年少亞之。預此契者：沛國劉伶，陳留阮咸，河內向秀，琅邪王戎。七人常集于竹林之下，肆意酣暢，故世謂『竹林七賢』」。目前可見最早的圖像記錄則是上世紀六十年代南京西善橋出土的六朝墓磚壁畫《竹林七賢與榮啟期》，見張安治等編，《中國美術全集 繪畫編 1 原始社會至南 北朝繪畫》，北京，1986 年，頁144。後世多以此典入詩入畫，竹木牙雕金石瓷玉皆有用此作為裝飾者。 此桌所用螺鈿薄而細，再以刀陰刻紋飾細節，線條板塊細膩流暢。可與之比較者參考日本根津美術館藏一件元代黑漆嵌螺鈿炕桌，桌面紋飾為十八學士圖，與本件有異曲同工之妙，見《宋元の美—伝来の漆器を中心に》，東京，2004年，圖版126。