ink cake

Moulded green ink cake in the shape of a bronze statue with the Buddha and flame of the mandorla painted in gilt. Raised inscriptions of the supervisor's name, Li Ting-wa, on obverse. Production date on side reading 'Made in the 3rd year of the Jiaqing period', which is equivalent to 1798. The reverse read 'Lueyuan zhuren jingzhi', meaning 'made by the master of Lueyuan'. Impressed inscriptions executed in gilt are also on reverse, reading 'Made in the 18th day of the 1st lunar month of the 5th year of the Tiantong reign', which explains a mid-6th century Buddha statue as the source of pictorial design of this ink cake.

Coloured ink cake was ground with water on an ink stone to produce watercolour for painting.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk