Page 322 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

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PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT COLLECTION 清十八世紀 周芷岩製竹雕竹石圖筆筒
A SMALL FINELY CARVED BAMBOO BRUSHPOT
BY ZHOU ZHIYAN, QING DYNASTY, 18TH 《芷岩》款
CENTURY
來源：
of slender cylindrical form, raised on three small feet, the 香港蘇富比2004年10月31日，編號191
exterior liberally carved with leafy windswept bamboo
growing amongst cragged rockwork, signed Zhiyan
9 cm, 3½ in.
PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 31st October 2004, lot 191.
HK$ 500,000-700,000
US$ 64,000-89,500

This brushpot is signed Zhou Hao (c. 1685-1773), also known
as Zhou Ran (zi Jinzhan, hao Xueqiao, Zhiyan, Yaofeng
shanren, Ranqi). Hailing from Jiading, Jiangsu province,
he was at the forefront of the Jiading school during the
Yongzheng and Qianlong periods and is considered one of
the most accomplished bamboo carvers of the Qing dynasty.
He was renowned for his deft wielding of the carving knife,
which he used like a painting brush. This piece exemplifies
Zhou’s ‘iron stroke and light depiction style’, as evident in
the rendering of rocks with ‘axe-cut strokes’.
Three brushpots carved with similar motifs of bamboo and
rocks and signed by Zhou Hao, but with lengthy inscriptions,
were included in the exhibition Literati Spirit: Art of Chinese
Bamboo Carving, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2012, cat.
nos 25, 26 and 27. Further works by Zhou Hao include a
brushpot carved with a landscape, illustrated in Zhu Shuyi,
‘Bamboo Carving of the Jiading School’, Orientations,
February 1991, pl. 6; another sold in these rooms, 8th
October 2010, lot 2230; and a third carved with a flowering
plum branch, from the Simon Kwan collection, included in
the exhibition Ming and Qing Bamboo, The Art Museum,
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2000, cat. no.
93.

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320 SOTHEBY ’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART