Page 96 - Asian Decorative Art Bonhams Dec 20 16

YIXING WARES

PROPERTY FROM VARIOUS OWNERS 9315
A GROUP OF EIGHT YIXING NUTS, FRUIT AND SEEDS
9310 Rendered in clay of varied hues to depict a water caltrop, a water
AN YIXING TEAPOT chestnut, a peanut, a sunflower seed, a walnut, an arrowroot, a
Meng Chen Mark ginko seed, and a tree chestnut together with a small dish marked
Of reddish brown clay and compressed globular shape supporting Zhongguo Yixing.
a handle and spout separated by the fitted domical lid below a frog 5 1/2in (14cm) diameter of dish
finial, the concave shoulders inscribed in a couplet, the bottom
bearing the incised Meng Chen maker’s mark. US$800 - 1,200
4in (10cm) width over handle
PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE SEATTLE COLLECTOR
US$1,000 - 1,500
9316
Provenance AN YIXING POTTERY CRICKET ARENA
Gim Fong, Los Angeles, California Daoguang mark
The light tan clay potted in short cylindrical shape and surmounted
9311 by a thin and recessed fitted disk-shaped lid, the undersides of the
AN YIXING TEAPOT base and body bearing impressed studio marks reading Daoguang
The branch-form handle and spout molded to grapevine and squirrel nian zizhi Wanqing Zhuren pen (scratches to underside, old chips).
motifs partially encircling the globular body supporting the fitted lid 4 3/4in (12cm) diameter
surmounted by a finial of similar decoration, the gently concave base
bearing a faintly impressed maker’s mark. US$800 - 1,200
8in (20.2cm) width over handles
PROPERTY PURCHASED BY AN AMERICAN FAMILY LIVING IN
US$1,500 - 2,000 CHINA FROM 1933-1937, BY REPUTE

Provenance 9317
John Sinclair, California AN YIXING ‘HUNDRED-FRUIT’ COVERED TEAPOT
19th/20th century
9312 Of compressed globular form beneath a fitted cover molded as
A PUMPKIN-FORM YIXING TEAPOT a mushroom, the sides suspending a water-chestnut handle and
The lid rendered as a naturalistic stem surmounting the body molded opposing lotus-shoot spout, separated by molded fruits and nuts
in ten lobes supporting a curved leaf-form spout opposing a loop applied to the shoulder in clays and slips of varied hues, all raised
handle, the sides further adorned in applied leafy vine tendrils upon additional nut-form feet including a lotus pod enclosing
(damage to mouth rim and lid interior). individually potted seeds, bearing an impressed seal to the side of
7in (17.5cm) width over handles the spout reading ji’an (old damage to collar of lid).
4 1/2in (11.5cm) high
US$1,500 - 2,000
US$800 - 1,200
Provenance
John Sinclair, California A very similar teapot was offered as lot 8368 in these rooms on 24
Edmond Dwyer, California June 2015 as part of Bonhams sale 22412. That pot bore a lengthy
inscription and the incised signature ‘Ziye.’ ‘Ziye’ as well as the
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF A PROMINENT BAY AREA impressed ‘ji’an’ found on the present pot are both linked to the
COLLECTOR 18th/19th century ceramicist/connoisseur Qu Yingshao (1780-1849).
See Terese Tse Bartholomew et al, The Art of the Yixing Potter: The
9313 K.S. Lo Collection, Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware (Hong
A LARGE YIXING TEAPOT Kong: The Urban Council, 1990), 238.
Suspended by metal alloy loop handles, the sturdily potted vessel
in tapered ovoid form supporting a thick spout and a fitted lid PROPERTY FROM ANOTHER OWNER
impressed in double gourd seals to read Yufeng, the underside
impressed to read Yixing zisha. 9318
7 1/4in (18.5cm) high AN YIXING POTTERY LOTUS-POD FORM WATER DROPPER
Chen Mingyuan mark
US$1,000 - 1,500 Enclosing twelve separately potted lotus seeds above tapering sides
adorned by a pea pod and other colorful seeds or legumes along the
9314 sides which bear impressed marks reading Chen, Ji, and Mingyuan
AN ASSEMBLED GROUP OF YIXING POTTERY (losses, damage).
The first a basket form globular teapot bearing an impressed maker’s 2 3/4in (7cm) diameter
mark reading Gu Qinjuan zhi; the second a teapot of ribbed section;
the third a small tea pot of compressed cylindrical section bearing a US$1,000 - 1,500
maker’s mark reading Jingxi Xu zhi; the fourth a small water dropper
potted as a scholar reclining against a rock; and the fifth a water pipe Numerous Yixing potted objects of similar naturalistic ‘fruit and nut’
bearing an incised jimao date (equivalent to 1939 or 1999) on the form bearing impressed Chen Mingyuan marks are in the Bei Shan
side, and bearing an impressed maker’s mark to the base possibly Tang Collection at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Most, if not
reading Fei Lanfen zhi. all of the objects in that collection are now dated to the early part of
7in (17.8cm) height of tallest (water pipe) the 20th century or later. See the exhaustive research compiled by
Terese Tse Bartholomew et al in The Bei Shan Tang Legacy: Yixing
US$1,500 - 2,500 Zisha Stoneware [Bei Shan Ji Gu: Yixing Zisha] (Hong Kong: Chinese
University of Hong Kong, 2015), specifically pp 384-385 no 153, but
also passim.

94 | BONHAMS