QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)

It was not until the Kangxi period that the usage of Songhua stone from modern-day Jilin province became to be highly regarded for its qualities in the grinding of ink. From the Kangxi period through the Qianlong period it was one of the preferred stones used for grinding ink. The present ink stone is accompanied by a highly unusual box and cover made of ‘butter stone’. While the exact composition of this kind of material remains uncertain, its name is well recorded in the Qing imperial archive. An entry dated to the 17^th day of the 4^th month of the 11^th year of the Yongzheng reign mentions that ‘nine Duan ink stones with “butter stone” boxes were presented by the viceroy of the Guandong region to the Yongzheng Emperor. A purple Duan ink stone with a ‘butter stone’ box and cover dating to the Jiaqing period (fig. 1) was included in the exhibition titled Selected Qing Court Inkstones from the Palace Museum Collection in 2018 held at the Palace Museum, Beijing. The underside of the present ink stone is incised with a four-character seal mark reading Yongzheng nian zhi.