A CARVED JADEITE 'GATHERING AT THE ORCHID PAVILION' BRUSHPOT, BITONG 19th centuryA CARVED JADEITE 'GATHERING AT THE ORCHID PAVILION' BRUSHPOT, BITONG19th century Exquisitely carved around the exterior with a continuous scene of scholars along a flowing stream spanned by a plank bridge amidst, two scholars catching a floating cup of wine with a pole, all beside a pavilion with a scholar gazing out from the balcony, all amidst a rocky landscape with gnarled pine and wutong trees, the stone of greyish-white tone with dark brown patches. 14.9cm (5 7/8in) high.十九世紀 翠玉雕「蘭亭雅集」筆筒The present lot takes its design from the very well-known preface Lanting Xu (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion) composed by the most celebrated Chinese calligrapher, Wang Xizhi (c.303-361), regarded as 'the Sage of Calligraphy'. The scene illustrated on the brushpot took place in the ninth year of the Yonghe reign, of the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420), when forty-two scholars were invited to the Orchid Pavilion (Lanting), near Shanyin, Zhejiang Province, for the Spring Purification Festival. Scholars were required to take part in a poetry competition and a drinking contest with wine cups floating down a winding river; those who failed to come up with a poem would have to drink in forfeit.Lanting Xu was one of the most celebrated works of literature and had a profound influence on later generations. Literati thereafter copied this canonical preface onto stone and ink-rubbings, table screens, ink cakes, and many other scholarly objects. See for example a 'Lanting Gathering' ink-rubbing compilation dated to the late Ming dynasty (1592), illustrated by G.Tsang and H.Moss, Art from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 2011, pp.66-69, pl.28. This highly-favoured subject matter was also used as a decoration on Imperial works of art made of various materials including jade, porcelain, lacquer and bamboo. The inspiration continued into the Qing dynasty where the Qianlong emperor, who was known for his admiration for Wang Xizhi's talent, also commissioned his Imperial staff to build a Floating Cup Pavilion, Liubei Ting (流杯亭) in the Pavilion of the Purification Ceremony, Xishang Ting (禊賞亭) in the Forbidden City, see N.Berliner, The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City, New Haven and London, 2010, pp.96-97.See a similar 18th century jade brushpot of yellowish dark green with black marbling and flecks, illustrated in The Baur Collection: Chinese Jades and Other Hard Stones, Geneva, 1976, pl.98; see also a related jade brushpot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, depicting the same renowned event, acc.no.:02.18.679.翠玉，圓筒形，平底略内凹。外壁通景雕飾蘭亭雅集景緻，有曲水流觴、崇山峻岭、茂林修竹，又有清流激湍、映帶左右。王羲之與眾文友或棲於亭中，或臨流浮觴，畫面分成四組，佈局合理，層次感強，人物形神刻劃細膩。「蘭亭序」為宮廷御作裏常見的文房器物題材，乾隆帝甚至下令在宮裏建造了帶有流杯渠的禊賞亭，見Nancy Berliner著，《The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City》，2010年，馬薩諸塞州，頁96-97；日內瓦鮑氏東方藝術館藏一十八世紀碧玉「蘭亭雅集」圖筆筒可資參考，載於《The Baur Collection: Chinese Jades and Other Hard Stones》，日内瓦，1876年，圖版98；另參考一件紐約大都會博物館藏清碧玉蘭亭雅集圖筆筒，館藏編號：02.18.679。