Ivory tusk carved with legendary scenes

Ivory carving has long been a traditional craft of the Guangdong region. Produced on both massive and miniature scale, sculpted or carved ivories of a wide range of themes and innovative designs are much-appreciated personal objects and pieces of decorative art. This monumental sculpture bears the incised mark of Liang Wei, an ivory carver active in Guangzhou during the late 19th and early 20th century. He was a native of Xiqiao in Nanhai, Guangdong province, and was a skilled carver of figures and plants. Some ivory carvers in modern Guangzhou and Hong Kong are followers of his.

This is an example of Liang's later work, commissioned by a French Hong-merchant in Shamian, from Chan Kun Ji's shop in Guangzhou, Guangdong. He transformed an entire piece of tusk into a miniature rendering of celebrated scenes associated with traditional festive processions and opera scenes. The ornate stand of Longan wood is decorated with lions playing with balls and with a design representing the "Four Noble Occupations". Both the decorative theme and the workmanship are characteristic of the late Qing to the early Republican periods. Moreover, its immense scale is rare among Chinese ivories.