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AN INSCRIBED YIXING STONEWARE The two-character signature Ziye on the present teapot is the
‘BAMBOO’ STONE-DIPPER TEAPOT AND zi of Qu Yingshao (1780-1849). Qu Yingshao, hao Yuehu, Qufu,
COVER Laoye, a native of Songjiang, Shanghai, active in the Jiaqing
SIGNED ZIYE, QING DYNASTY, DAOGUANG and Daoguang periods, excelled at seal carving, appraising
PERIOD, DATED DINGWEI YEAR, antiques, and painting bamboo. He was particularly successful
CORRESPONDING TO 1847 in utilizing Yixing teapots as a medium for expressing
calligraphy and incised designs derived from painting. By
of Ziye-form, superbly potted with the sloping sides rising incorporating the greatest achievements of literati art into
from three attened circular feet, set with a short spout his approach to teapot-making, he superbly demonstrated
opposite an angled handle, elegantly carved through the the skills of the potter in achieving harmony of form. Qu often
red clay to a golden-speckled ground with a design of leafy worked with other artists or potters in the making of a teapot.
bamboo extending onto the attened cover set with a loop Evidence for this can be found in Li Jingkang and Zhang Hong,
knop, accompanied by a calligraphic inscription translating A Pictorial Study of the Teapots of Yangxian, Hong Kong, 1937,
to ‘preceded by (a painting of) Gui Wenxiu - when an isolated where the author discusses how Qu typically designed the
branch meets the wind and rain, made under the bamboo teapots, commissioned their manufacture, and then decorated
window in the middle of rain in the 8th month of the dingwei them with his friend and fellow seal carver Deng Gui, ‘Teapots
year’, followed by a two-character signature reading Ziye, of good quality Qu Yingshao would personally inscribe and
incised to one foot with a xin (heart) character, the base decorate with carved bamboo or prunus.’
impressed with a square seal reading shihu zifan, together with
another seal under the handle reading Ji’an (2)
Width 5½ in., 14 cm
$ 50,000-70,000
1847
174 SOTHEBY’S
