Ming Scholar’s Paperweight in the Form of a Recumbent Goat, with Wooden Stand

This fine solid cast and chased bronze weight is of a recumbent goat with a long beard, and with a leafy flourish in its mouth and over its back. The tail ends in small but elaborate curls.

The weight benefits from having a carved wooden stand that has been custom-made for the piece, which possibly dates to the piece’s manufacture.

Such weights charmingly combine design with the utilitarian, in a way which conforms with the Confucian aesthetic with its emphasis on scholarship, and which drew upon the natural world to present the harmonious co-existence of man with nature. Such weights were ideal for the scholar’s desk where they might both perform a function and be the subject of contemplation.

The example here is in fine condition.