Page 158 - Sotheby's Asia Week March 2024 Chinee Art

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A BLUE AND WHITE ‘FIGURAL’ BRUSHPOT, 明崇禎 青花司馬相如題橋圖筆筒
MING DYNASTY, CHONGZHEN PERIOD
Height 8⅝ in., 22 cm 来源：
購於香港，2000年4月27日
PROVENANCE
馬錢特，倫敦，2000年9月28日
Acquired in Hong Kong, 27th April 2000.
Marchant, London, 28th September 2000.
Intricately painted, the present brushpot recounts the
tale of Sima Xiangru inscribing his ambition on a pillar
beside a bridge, accompanied by his wife and attendants.
After little luck in advancing his career in the bureaucratic
system despite his talents and hard work, the Western
Han scholar and poet decided to inscribe his ambitions on
a bridge one day, vowing to not cross the bridge until he
had become successful. Celebrated for centuries, the story
commemorates Sima Xiangru’s ambition and determination
despite hard times, serving as a fitting subject matter for a
scholar’s object.
See a blue and white bowl, depicting the same story,
illustrated in Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century:
Landscapes, Scholars’ Motifs and Narratives, China Institute,
New York, 1995, cat. no. 47. A famille-verte beaker vase
attributed to the Kangxi period, also painted with the same
tale, is in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai (accession no.
CI00004915) and published on the Museum’s website.
⊖ $ 15,000-20,000

312 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11410 KANGXI PORCELAIN FROM A BRITISH PRIVATE COLLECTION 313