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A GILT-DAMASCENED AND RETICULATED IRON ‘DRAGON’ PEN HOLDER, TIBET, 15TH CENTURY
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12月16日 晚上6点 开拍 /7天8小时
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Description

A GILT-DAMASCENED AND RETICULATED IRON ‘DRAGON’ PEN HOLDER, TIBET, 15TH CENTURY

Expert’s note: Reticulated iron pen cases produced in Tibet during the 15th century, particularly those associated with the Derge tradition, are most often ornamented with scrolling foliate patterns and lotus motifs, frequently framed by geometric borders or accompanied by auspicious emblems. Dragon imagery, by contrast, is a bit more rare within this decorative vocabulary. The present example belongs to that scarcer group, its design featuring rampant dragons in mutual pursuit, cleverly “hidden” amid the scrolling tendrils. Compare for example with a pierced iron pen case with dragon decoration in the British Museum (inv. 1933,0508.34). The incorporation of dragons into the reticulated design underscores the sophistication of this piece within the broader corpus of Tibetan pen cases.

Of cylindrical form and masterfully worked with a pair of sinuous dragons amid dense scrollwork, lined by a geometric band, and terminating in a lotus bud. The design repeated to the cover with a third dragon. The pieces joined by two lugs suspending a cord.

Provenance: From the collection of Paul Atkinson, acquired between 1970 and 2007. Paul Atkinson is a passionate and wide-ranging collector whose career has spanned over five decades. Known for his boundless curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit, Atkinson began his journey in the antiques trade during the 1970s, sourcing pieces from regional sales and eventually opening his first shop in Matlock, Derbyshire. At one of his first auctions as a 20-year-old in 1970, a veteran dealer came over to Atkinson at a farm sale and said, “you think that you have joined a business, don't you?” Atkinson responded, “Well, this isn't a business – it's an illness from which you never recover”. His eye for the unique and rare quickly led him to the international stage, exporting English furniture to the United States and Europe and expanding into fields such as Pre-Colombian, tribal, and ethnographic art. Over the years, Atkinson built an eclectic collection that includes Grand Tour bronzes, Anglo-Indian carvings, Ottoman arms, African masks, and European furniture. His reputation was solidified with the opening of a gallery in the Louvre des Antiquaires in Paris, and later through his restoration of Sydnope Hall, once the home of Charles Darwin’s family. Together with his wife Vivien, an experienced art market professional, Atkinson later relocated to Mallorca, where they opened a major gallery catering to a distinguished international clientele.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, traces of use, and manufacturing irregularities, encrustations and little corrosion, light warping and minute dents, rubbing and losses to gilding. Overall with a really nice patina.

Weight: 253.5 g
Dimensions: Length 29.5 cm

The dragon, a symbol of auspicious power and protection, lends the case both cosmological resonance and worldly prestige, suggesting ownership by a scholar of rank or a monastic official. Such pen cases were not only functional but also potent emblems of erudition, reflecting the centrality of manuscript culture in Tibet before the wide dissemination of printing. The delicacy of the reticulated design underscores the technical virtuosity of Tibetan artisans, while the motif links this rare object to broader cross-cultural currents circulating along the Sino-Tibetan frontier during the Ming dynasty.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 21 September 2005, lot 183
Price: USD 7,200 or approx. EUR 10,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A gold damascened iron box and cover, Tibet, 15th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related motif with rampant dragons in mutual pursuit, cleverly ‘hidden’ amid scrolling tendrils.

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拍品估价:2,000 - 4,000 欧元 起拍价格:2,000 欧元  买家佣金: 30.00%

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