A 'famille-rose' brushpot. Seal mark and period of Qianlong

of rectangular form resting on a four bracket feet, moulded on each side with an indented panel within an iron-red border, two sides of the exterior painted in a 'famille-rose' palette with a landscape scene, the first enclosing Zhang Guolao and Li Tieguai with their associated attributes, the second with two scholars, the other two sides with an inscription written in caoshu, all reserved on a soft greige ground decorated in gilt with foliate scrolls, the interior and base turqouise, the base with a central square reserved in white and inscribed with the seal mark in iron-red. 12.4 cm., 4 7/8 in.. Estimate 600,000—800,000 HKD. Lot Sold. 860,000 HKD

NOTE: Famille-rose brushpots decorated in this painterly manner with poems and figures in landscape are rare. The present brushpot takes its form after the famous square brushpot in the yang-ts'ai enamels with imperial poems on four sides, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat.no. 139, and also in the exhibition Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung Reign, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2008, cat. no. 59. Another related grisaille decorated square brushpot, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, 'Tan Tang Ying kuan de ciqi ji qita', Jingdezhen taoci, Jingdezhen, 1982, no. 2, back cover. See a third square-form brushpot offered in these rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 180, attributed to Tang Ying and painted with landscape scenes on two of the four sides and poems on the remaining two.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Apr 09. Hong Kong www.sothebys.com photo courtesy Sotheby's