Page 77 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022
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The present brushpot is unusual both for the rare decorative border The brushpot is laden with auspicious meaning. The scholar-official
beneath the rim, and also its large size. Although 'blobby dots' can be pointing at the sun provides a rebus: the rising sun suggests a rise
found on the borders of several brushpots from the transitional period, in prosperity. 'Pointing at the sun' (zhi ri) is a pun for 'day by day',
its combination with red and green is particularly unique. suggesting the blessing zhiri gaosheng 指日高陞 (May you day by day
rise in rank).
See a related wucai brushpot, early Kangxi, illustrated in Transitional
Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong, 1981, p.35. Compare also
with a related blue and white brushpot with similar composition of
figures on a terrace, Chongzhen, illustrated by T.Canepa and K.Butler,
Leaping The Dragon Gate: The Sir Michael Butler Collection of
Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain, London, 2021, p.224.
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