A Chinese carved boulder, 20th Century.

Motif with a luohans/scholars in a mountain grotto. The subject matter may have derived from a woodblock print on the theme, printed in the 18th century catalogue Gu yu tu pu (古玉圖譜), attributed to the Southern Song dynasty.

For examples of jade 'luohan' boulders carved with inscriptions see one from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, with the inscription denoting the luohan Cūdapanthaka, illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Qing Court, Taipei, 1997, p.148, fig.43; another example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (II), Shanghai, 2008, p.76, no.56; two further examples, one un-inscribed but of similar jade stone and inclusions, 17th/18th century, and another with an inscription, 18th century, in the British Museum, London, illustrated by J.Rawson, Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pp.409-410, no.29:19 and fig.1; and one inscribed and carved with the luohan Kanaka, 18th century, from the Hebert R. Bishop Collection, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.02.18.640). See also a related jade 'luohan' inscribed boulder, Qianlong, illustrated by R.Kerr, et al., Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection, Surrey, 2011, pl.177.