QIANLONG YUMING MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Made of a combination of zisha, purple clay from Yixing, and chengni, fine river mud baked and polished, the current ink stone belongs to a group of imperial ink stones made during the Qianlong period as gifts for noteworthy officials. Compare a chengni ink stone with the same decoration and imperial poem accompanied by a jade-inset zitan box incised with the same poem and a cyclical wuxu year (1778) in the Palace Museum, Beijin, refer to the museum’s official website: https://www.dpm.org.cn/collection/studie/227597.html