***Pas d'enchéres online possibles sur ce lot!... Lot 84

***Pas d'enchéres online possibles sur ce lot! Veuillez vous adresser directement au département via asian@lempertz.com*** A highly significant imperial Chengni inkstone in the form of a tiger. Qianlong era, cyclically dated wuxu (1778) The inkstone with cover is made of a reddish-brown fired clay and is shaped as a stylized crouching tiger. The surface is speckled with dark green incrustations imitating an antique bronze patina and accentuated with gold flecks. On the inside of the lid is an engraved poem by the Qianlong Emperor, which ends with the date wuxu (1778) and the seals "bide" and "langrun". The ink reservoir in the rubbing surface is in the form of a yin and yang symbol. Of the "Four Famous Inkstones" (Si daming yan) in ancient China, three types were made from natural stone, the Duan, She and Taoye inkstones. Chengni inkstones from Luoyang in Henan province, on the other hand, were the only ones that had been modeled and fired from clay since the Tang period. The Chengni stones of the old Daoist Lü from Ze Prefecture were considered to be the best ink stones of the Song period and were praised by contemporary poets. The recipe for the clay was lost over the centuries until the Qianlong Emperor was finally able to bring it back to life through numerous experiments. For the production of the present tiger inkstone, his craftsmen used a historical model from the Han period, which is also depicted in the Xiqing yanpu, the collection catalog of the imperial inkstone collection, which is now kept in the Palace Museum in Taipei (ill.). Qianlong had a poem written by himself engraved on the inside of the lid, the first lines of which read: "What was made by old Lu is unattainable in our times; he was skillfully made in Jinchang in the form of a crouching tiger". Qianlong's poem about the Chengni tiger inkstone can also be found in the Siku Quanzhu (Complete Writings of the Four Treasuries), the monumental collection of books that he had compiled between 1773 and 1782 (ill.). L 13.8 cm Provenance Private collection, Westphalia, in family ownership for several generations Exhibitions On permanent loan to the Berlin Museum of Asian Art from 1990 to 2024 (DLG 119-1990) and exhibited there from time to time (documented by a condition report from the museum) Literature A very similar ink rubbing stone from the collection of the Palace Museum in Taipei is illustrated in National Palace Museum, Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2000, p. 113. Three other very similar inkstones were auctioned, one at Christie's Hong Kong on 30.5.23, lot 3119, one at Poly Beijing, 4.6.2010, lot 4146, and one at Poly Beijing on 6.6.2015, lot 6535