Page 56 - Bonhams Passkon and Philanthropy MET Mjuseum March 2024 Asia Week

26 ¤
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

$6,000 - 8,000
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.

54 | BONHAMS