A SUPERBLY CARVED BAMBOO 'SCHOLAR, ROCK AND PINE' GROUPShaohuai, 1500 – 1750Skilfully carved as a natural and perforated rock formation rising from a rocky ground, depicting a bearded scholar and his attendant within a landscape setting surrounded by pine trees, the scholar's hair tied in a cloth cap, seated on the trunk of an ancient pine growing into the rock formation, next to a natural rock table raised on a gnarled maple tree, the table set with a volume of books and two vessels, the attendant kneeling on the ground to wrap or unwrap a cloth-wrappedqin with a large wine jar of apple shape behind him, the back of the carving utilising the natural inter-nodal section of the bamboo culm to form two irregular shelves, inscribed beneath the attendant with the signature of the carver, Shaohuai, followed by one seal of the artist,Baiyu (White rain), the bamboo patinated to an attractive deep brown colour, wood stand and fitted box.12.2cm (4 3/4in) high (3).Provenance: 1500 - 1750年 竹雕松下髙仕圖山子「少褱」作「白雨」印Provenance:Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1994來源:倫敦古董商Sydney L. Moss Ltd.，1994年Shaohuai appears to be a late-Ming or early-Qing carver of extraordinary merit, but is strangely unrecorded. The type of carving, which utilises a thick segment of the culm including, in this case, part of an inter-nodal segment taken from a culm with a diameter of about twenty centimetres, was one of the standard forms for late-Ming and Qing carvings where the work is intended to be seen as a fully three-dimensional image, albeit dictated by the form of the material. They frequently depicted either the ideal literati life, as in the present lot, or symbolic subjects such as cranes and pines (both representing longevity).The natural rock-formation in the present lot is quite magnificent and would, at the time the carving was made, havemanded an extraordinary price if it were transferred to the gardens of the literati, or to the Court, but such treasures, in the imaginations of carvers, could be used as a setting for an ideal literati life, with the scholar seated in a rustic setting, beneath a pine, representing longevity (as does the rock) and, without constraint, they are mostly masterly scholar's rocks few of which existed in real life, hence their immense value, while they were ubiquitous in painting and sculpture.少褱應為明末清初的竹雕名家，然而卻無其作品的記載，令人頗爲意外。 此類竹雕造型屬於晚明及清代經典，原材來自較粗的竹枝，直徑約 20 公分，屬於兩個竹節之間的部位。晚明和清代竹雕多為立體造型，按照竹製形狀而精心設計， 紋飾多數描繪文人雅士的理想生活、或富有寓意的主題如仙鶴及壽松（兩種紋飾均代表長壽）等。本竹雕紋飾屬於前者，壽石層層交曡，引人入勝。這類山石在大自然頗為壯觀，相信在當時若移到文人庭院或宮廷裝飾，定極為貴重。竹雕家從文人雅士理想生活的宜人景致汲取靈感，描繪文人在現實中甚為少見的山石中坐於壽松之下，享受鄉間閑暇，怡然自得。如此風景，常見於書畫及雕刻，卻極其少見於竹雕，故此更顯珍罕。