Provenance:|Chu Family Collection, Shanghai, 1950s|The restrained carving and the unadorned biscuit porcelain reflects the characteristically austere taste of the scholar, for whom an inkstone is a crucial tool. Compare a related biscuit porcelain inkstone carved with fruiting pomegranate on the cover from the collection of Humphrey K. F. Hui and illustrated in Elegance in Relief, Hong Kong, 2006, no. 177.