Lot 26: AN UNUSUAL FAMILLE-VERTE BRUSHPOT, BITONG Kangxi

AN UNUSUAL FAMILLE-VERTE BRUSHPOT,
BITONG

Kangxi

The cylindrical porcelain vessel rising to a slightly flaring mouth rim, painted in underglaze cobalt-blue and
verte enamels with a continuous scene of a youthful official riding a donkey at full speed in pursuit of a departing boat, his attendant under a large weeping willow behind him, an elegant lady seated under the canopy of the vessel that is steered by an elderly boatman away from a rocky promontory between underglaze-blue double lines at the rounded spreading foot and below the rim.


5 1/8in (13cm) high, wood cover

A small chip to the mouth rim (approximately 1cm.) and a minor nibble to the opposite edge but unobtrusive. The green glaze with some craquelure and one small flake to one side (above the riders head). A very nice example and an unusual subject probably taken from one of the 'Romance' stories.

清康熙 五彩人物圖筆筒



Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價




Provenance:

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), New York

Purchase by subscription, 1879

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1879-present




來源：

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904)，紐約

會費購藏，1879 年

大都會藝術博物館，1879 年迄今



The scene depicted may well illustrate a narrative from the
Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiang ji), based on a 13th century play by Wang Shifu. The equestrian figure may be the hero, Zhanggong, departing to take the Imperial examination and watched by the heroine, Yingying, seated in the boat nearby.



For another
famille-verte brushpot of this unusual mortar form with a similar spreading foot, see Sam Marsh,
Brushpots, A collector's view, Hong Kong, 2020, pp.250-251, though painted with a dragon and tiger, rather than the
Romance scene on our example.

This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ¤