Page 80 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

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A WUCAI 'RISE IN OFFICIAL RANK' JAR AND COVER 'Rise in official rank' was a popular motif but usually shows three
Shunzhi scholars offering a wine ewer, wine cup and boot. The boot is part
Brightly enamelled around the exterior with a continuous scene of a of official attire while the wine cup or jue was an archaic ritual vessel
dignitary seated on a horseshoe-back chair with tiger-skin, surrounded that conveyed rising in official rank. See Folklore in Ming and Qing
by court retinue with sword and standard bearers, kneeling before Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2019, pp.166-167. However, the present lot
the dignitary a gentlemen in black robes proffers a boot, with further shows no ewer or wine cup.
guardsmen carrying swords and halberds watching, all amidst a
balustraded court setting leading to rocks and trees with swirling The other possibility is that the figure in black kneeling is the powerful
clouds, all beneath a ruyi-head border at the neck, the domed cover eunuch and politician Gao Lishi holding the drunken poet Li Bai's
surmounted by a lotus-bud finial and decorated with cartouches boots. According to Stories to Caution the World (警世通言), Li Bai,
containing landscapes. the renowned poet in the Tang dynasty who refused to take the
33cm (13in) high. (2). civil service examination was berated by the powerful officials Yang
Guozhong and Gao Lishi as an an unlearned scholar that was only
£18,000 - 24,000 worthy of holding an inkstone and removing footwear for them. Later,
CNY150,000 - 190,000 however, the Balhae Kingdom sent an ambassador with a letter, which
only Li Bai could read. The emperor directed Li Bai to reply to the letter
清順治 五彩「加官進爵」蓋罐 and granted the drunk Li's request to have Yang Guozhong hold his
inkstone and Gao Lishi take of his boots; see ibid., pp.16-17.
Provenance:
Richard Marchant Ltd. Chinese and Japanese Works of Art, London, The scene could also relate to the story of 'Chancellor Ku Zhun
14 December 1994 Venturing into the Cellar Without his Boots on', which tells the story
of the chancellor pursuing General Yan Linlang, treading softly in his
來源： socks, but fails to catch him and has to report failure to the eight
倫敦古董商 Richard Marchant Ltd. Chinese and Japanese Works of princes. See Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from and Unknown Reign,
Art，1994年12月14日 Alexandria, 2002, p.216, no.70.
See a related wucai jar, Shunzhi, with similar design, from the Butler
Family collection and illustrated in Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from an
Unknown Reign, Alexandria, 2002, pp.216-217, no.70.

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