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Chen Zuzhang
Cantonese ivory carver in the Qing imperial workshops who carved the olive-stone boat of 1737 now in Taipei
A craft workshop centres on a potter's wheel holding a tall celadon vase, amid racks of red lacquer boxes, an embroidery frame with a floral design, shelves of celadon ware, carved wooden panels and stacked logs, while one craftsman works at a table and another stands at a glowing kiln.
Also known as Ivory carver Chen Zuzhang
- Roles
- Master Craftsmen
Chen Zuzhang was an ivory carver from Guangdong. In the Yongzheng reign the superintendent of the Canton customs, Zu Binggui, sent him to the capital, where he worked in the Imperial Household workshops; the workshop records name him in 1732. The National Palace Museum in Taipei holds his Boat Carved from an Olive Stone of 1737, a covered boat cut from a single olive pit whose cabin windows open and close, with eight figures aboard and Su Shi's Second Ode on the Red Cliff and his signature carved on the underside.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the Yongzheng and early Qianlong reigns