A stained ivory seal paste box and cover and a stained ivory seal


Early Qing DynastyThe box of six-lobed form, finely carved in shallow relief to the cover with a kylin roundel encircled by the Ba Bao, the sides engraved with scholars in mountainscapes and the stanzas of a poem; the square seal with a seal script face and Buddhist Lion finial.The box: 8cm (3 1/8in) diam. (3).
|The calligraphic inscription on the present lot is the poem by famous Tang poet Wang Zhihuan, 'Climbing Stork Tower', which is often regarded as a metaphor for an ambitious official rising up the ranks of state bureaucracy.白日依山盡黃河入海流欲窮千里目更上一層樓Bai ri yi shan jinHuang he ru hai liuyu qiong qianli mugeng shang yi ceng louThe white sun sets behind the mountains,and the Yellow River flows into the sea,To see a thousand mile view,go up another floor.