Page 115 - Sotheby's Speelman Collection Oct. 3, 2018

The present ivory brushpot is inscribed with a poem by Zhang reverse-decorated with birds and flowers; one sold in these
Zhichun from the Yuan dynasty, referencing the legendary rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3777, and the other, illustrated
peach orchard ‘Peach Blossom Spring’. According to Tao Qian by Michel Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector through the
(365-427), a fisherman accidentally entered through a crevice Centuries, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan, 1966, p. 242,
in a rock, followed the course of a stream and discovered a no. 101, and in Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing,
paradisiacal peach orchard. The poem is further accompanied Oriental Ceramic Society and the British Museum, London,
by a scene depicting scholars visiting their friends, rendered 1984, p. 154, no. 182, was sold at Christie’s New York, 21st
through a complex process of reverse decoration, in which the March 2000, lot 53. For a reverse-decorated ivory table
landscape and the figures are reserved in the natural colour of screen with figures in a landscape, see one also included in the
the ivory material against the black lacquer ground. exhibition Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, op.cit.,
no. 162. Another comparable brushpot from the Qing court
A related cylindrical brushpot, decorated with ladies in a
landscape, dated to the Kangxi period, was sold at Christie’s collection, but of lobed form, is in the collection of the Palace
London, 5th November 2013, lot 11. Compare also two Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of
hexagonal examples from the Edward T. Chow collection, both Treasures of the Palace Museum: Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and
Rhinoceros Horn Carvings, Hong Kong, 2002, no. 139.

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