Tibetan Gilded Iron Pen Case

Price on request · Region: China, East Asia, Tibet · Type: Antiques

Now sold.

The monastic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism required monks to carry the implements needed to write down Tibetan and Sanskrit text. The Tibetan script is written from left to right and the learned monks that would traditionally be skilled in writing would carry with them bamboo pens called nyugu, which they would carry in pen cases made of a variety of materials such as copper, silver, tin, or iron.

The finest Tibetan pencases were made in East Tibet in the region of Derge and were constructed of chiseled and gilded iron, often carved with intricate designs interwoven with dragons. These have been attributed as early as the 15th century through the 17th century. LaRocca in Warriors of the Himalayas shows a number of examples of post 17th century Tibetan ironwork, but the closely cropped and pierced work found on early Derge work is distinctive and can be confidently dated to the pre 17th century period. Often this work displays strong influences from mid to late period Ming period China.

Daniel Kerem in his article on Derge work notes that:  "The intensely, fretted, chased, embossed gilded and inlaid work per square inch represents some of the most labor-intensive work ever conceived and attempted in iron."

A number of important institutional collections feature examples of this form, including the Art Institute of Chicago (See Acc. Nr. 2012.685a) which is dated to the period of 1400-1600, The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia, (See Acc. Nr. 2464.a-b-D3), and the British Museum Museum (See Acc. Nr. 1933,0508.34), and two related examples in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology Acc. Nrs. E422253 and E420059 (images may be provided by us request). The decoration of all of these is closely related and often features a scroll-like pattern chiseled in the round in the form a two sectioned iron tube. The different examples are distinguished by the closeness and the quality of the chiseling. The finest examples also feature dragons carved and undercut in the iron with the scrollwork, such as that in the British Museum and the two in the Smithsonian Department of Anthropology.

The example on offer compares closely in quality to the previously referenced institutional examples and retains much of the original gilding. The carved ironwork displays no losses and features three dragons carved in three-dimensional form in rotation around the center axis of the pen case lengthwise. Most intriguingly the carver had the sense of humor to actually carve the dragon at the bottom end of the longer section holding on to the tail of the other dragon, a detail that would likely have amused only the maker, and perhaps the owner (see the last image).

These pen cases were apocryphally referred to as the weapon of priests and lamas. Rudyard Kipling in his classic novel, Kim, about the Great Game in East and Central Asia includes a deeply sympathetic portrayal of Teshoo Lama, an elderly Tibetan monk, traveling through India and who adopts Kim as his chela and wields his iron pen case to protect himself. Interestingly Kipling writes of the lama wielding specifically iron pen case and noting that he was of significant means as he had been the Abbot of Suchzen Lamassery. In an altercation with a Russian agent:

“The Lama’s hand went down to his heavy metal pen-case--- ever the holy man’s weapon of defense---but before he could defend himself he received a blow in the face.”

Recently, scholarship has identified the Suchzen Lamassery as likely to have been a reference to the Tso-chen Lamassery, 450 miles east of Simla and 200 miles north of Kathmanda, and home to Red Hat monks.

References:
Hopkirk, P. (1994) The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia. Kodchen.
Kerem. D. "Derge Work: The Fretwork of Tibet" Fine Tools Journal
Kipling, R. (1901) Kim. MacMillan and Co.
LaRocca, D. (2006) Warriors of the Himalayas. Metropolitan Museum of Art