Small sculpture with a turned base and a spirit sphere (鬼功球 “guĭ gōng qiú”) in elephant ivory. China, 19th century

Overall height 175 mm

In 1388 AD, the scholar Cáo Zhāo 曹昭 published a guide for collectors of antiquities, which, in addition to jades, porcelains and bronzes, also mentioned a type of objects with a curious name: “spirit-made balls” (鬼功球 “guĭ gōng qiú”).

In the work entitled “Fundamental Notes on the Evaluation of Ancient Objects” (“格古要論 “gé gǔ yào lùn”), paragraph 120 of the second volume states the following:
“Deserving of praise are some ivory spheres whose interior can be directly penetrated through openings. All the numerous internal layers can be made to rotate. Such spheres are therefore called 'spirit-made balls'. It is also said that they were produced in the palaces of the Song dynasty.” ( 嘗有象牙圎球兒一箇中直通一竅內車數重皆可轉動故謂之鬼功球或云宋內院中作者). (1)

We can deduce from Cao Zhao's text that these ivory spheres were called “spirit-made balls” because the extreme ingenuity with which they were crafted seemed to go beyond the limits of human possibility.

Although ivory carving in China can be traced back to the Shāng Dynasty (c. 1600 BC–1046 BC), Cao Zhāo is the first source to mention the existence of these objects. He notes, however, that, according to rumors of his time, ivory spheres crafted in this way were already being produced during the Sòng Dynasty (960 AD–1279 AD), during which ivory carving flourished. Unfortunately, no examples have survived.

The reference to "imperial palaces" leads us to assume that these objects were produced, if not exclusively for the imperial palace, at least for a select clientele with enormous financial resources. The cost of the materials and the extreme complexity of the work, which required not only incredible manual skill but also an extraordinary expenditure of time, meant that prices were affordable only to a very fortunate few.

The spheres were obviously seen primarily as exceptional works of art (or craftsmanship), but they could also be used as (very expensive) pastimes, as by carefully moving the individual spheres back and forth, it was possible to align all their openings and glimpse the central sphere. It is for this reason that the English also call them "Chinese puzzle balls." Their use as a toy, however, requires an extremely delicate touch (usually using very thin sticks, quills, or even toothpicks to move the internal spheres) because the layers of ivory that compose the individual spheres are so thin as to be extremely fragile.

The production of “puzzle spheres” saw a great increase during the period in which China was subjected to the Qing dynasty (1644 AD-1912), when they aroused the interest of the ever-increasing number of Westerners who came into contact with the Celestial Empire.

This lot, accompanied by a CITES certificate and a technical report issued by Ce.S.Ar. Centro Studi Archeometri, is available for sale only with shipments within the European Community.