Page 36 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

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A BLUE AND WHITE CIRCULAR BRUSH AND INK STAND John da Silva was born in the United States of a Portuguese father
Chang ming fu gui mark, late 16th century and American mother, whose parents had come to America from
The drum shaped stand with three circular and one rectangular France in the middle of the 19th century and founded a chocolate
opening around a smaller central circular opening on a raised knob, factory in San Francisco. After the Second World War he joined the
the top surface painted with wave-pattern, the straight sides with a Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The job took him to many parts
wide band of egrets among lotus between slightly raised borders of of the world. His love of Chinese porcelain stemmed from a posting to
coins, the recessed base with maker's mark translated as 'long life, the Embassy in Rome in 1954, where he happened to stay in a rented
riches and honour'. flat that housed a large collection of Chinese and Japanese works of
13cm (5 1/8in) diam. art. He regularly purchased Chinese works of art from auction houses
in London in the 1960's. He Joined the Oriental Ceramics Society in
£15,000 - 20,000 1960, serving on the Council from 1977-1980 and from 1984-1987
CNY120,000 - 160,000 and as Honorary Treasurer from 1992-1994.

明十六世紀晚期 青花五孔筆插 The use of this vessel is clarified by a painting of the famous
「長命富貴」款 philosopher Wang Yangming (1472-1529) seated at his writing desk
which illustrates a handscroll of his letters and other related material.
Provenance: The piece is shown on his desk with three brushes placed, tips
S.Marchant & Son, London, 24 May 1966 upwards, in it, together with a small vase of flowers, an inkstone and
John Burke da Silva (1918-2003) a water dropper or paper weight. The natural assumption is that the
Sotheby's London, 10 November 2004, lot 591 rectangular section is to hold an inkstick, which is confirmed by the
late Ming scholar Wen Zhenheng, who in Zhang wu zhi ('A Treatise on
Exhibited: Superfluous Things') under the heading of brushpots wrote:
Oriental Ceramic Society, The Chinese Scholars Desk, 17th to 18th
Century, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1979, no.46. '...there are also drum-shaped ones with holes in them for inserting
Oriental Ceramic Society, Research Display of Chinese Sixteenth brushes and ink.'
Century Ceramics, British Museum, London, 1994, no.44 (illustrated
p.6) See a similar blue and white brush and ink stand, Jiajing, illustrated
by G.Tsang and H.Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong,
Published: 1986, pp.226-227, no.212. See also another similar blue and white
John da Silva, 'Three Types of Chinese Brush Stand', Oriental Art, vol. brush and ink stand, 16th century, in the Percival David collection in
XXIV, no.3, Autumn 1978, p.326, fig.2. the British Museum (acc.no.PDF,B.605). Compare also with a similar
S.Marsh, Brushpots: A Collector's View, Hong Kong, 2020, pp.22-24, blue and white vessel, but decorated with fish, Jiajing, illustrated in
figs.2-3 Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II): The Complete
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000,
來源： no.114.
倫敦古董商 S.Marchant & Son，1966年5月24日
John Burke da Silva (1918-2003)
蘇富比倫敦，2004年11月10日，拍品591號

展覽：
東方瓷器協會，《The Chinese Scholars Desk, 17th to 18th Century》
，阿什莫林博物館，牛津，1979年，編號46
東方瓷器協會， 《Brushpots: A collector's view》，大英博物館，倫
敦，1994年，編號44（圖版頁6）
錄著：
John da Silva, 'Three Types of Chinese Brush Stand'，《Oriental Art》
，第24卷，編號3號，1978年秋季，頁326，插圖2號
S.Marsh, 《Brushpots: A collector's view》，香港，2020，頁22-24
，插圖2-3號

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
36 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.