A FINELY CARVED TWENTY-SEVEN-SPHERE IVORY PUZZLE BALL, ZHUANXINQIU

LATE QING DYNASTY

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A FINELY CARVED TWENTY-SEVEN-SPHERE IVORY PUZZLE BALL, ZHUANXINQIU
late qing dynasty
The outer sphere carved in high relief with sinuous dragons among coiling clouds, with fourteen circular apertures successively revealing the thin-walled inner spheres loosely rolling within, each pierced with geometric patterns and similar circular apertures, minute extremity chips
6 in. (15.5 cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

A slightly smaller ivory puzzle ball is in the Palace Museum Taibei, consisting of 21 concentric spheres, illustrated in Selection of Masterworks in the Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taibei 1978, pl.78, p.110; another, with 18 spheres, but dated to the second quarter of the 19th Century, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, ref.380 1872

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