A finely potted Yixing stoneware teapot and cover with another teapot. Mid Qing dynasty, signed Feng Youlan. Photo Bonhams

Of concave cylindrical form rising to slanting shoulders and a straight neck, one side finely incised with inscriptions inxingshu style, the underside of the cover and the base impressed with seal marks, the clay of a vivid reddish tone, together with another teapot with compressed spherical form surmounted by a double-tiered cover, the base with incised inscription. Largest: 15.2cm long. (4). Lot 512. Sold for HK$ 112,500 

From the Mr and Mrs Gerard Hawthorn Collection

Notes: The two-character mark at the underside of the cover readsYoulou, and the seal mark on the base, Youlan mizhi, or 'specially made by Youlan'. The incised inscription is translated 'the bright moon shows after the spring rain, the mountain is beloved at the sunset' with the artist's signature ofzhuping.

Shao Youlan is believed to be a native of Yixing who actively produced teapots during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods. Although his dates of birth and death is unrecorded in historical connoisseurship, extant examples bearing the same mark suggest his close relationship with Yixing connoisseurs and scholars including Shao Erquan, Chen Mansheng and Zhu Ping. See a teapot with the same mark but incised by Shao Erquan from the collection of K.S.Lo, The Stoneware of Yixing, Hong Kong, 1986, p.109, pl.48. Another teapot made by the same potter and incised by Zhuping was also illustrated, see Yixing Purple Clay Wares - The K.S.Lo Collection, Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, p.105, pl.60.

Although K.S.Lo expressed his uncertainty of identifying theyoulan mizhi mark, he believed judging by the style of the extant examples, the potter or studio that used this seal was active between 1830 and 1890. Another example currently in the collection of Palace Museum, Beijing, shows both the two-character youlan mark underside the cover and a Shao Youlan seal mark on the base, together with a signature ofShao Erquan for the incised inscriptions, see Geng Baochang ed., Zishaqi - Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin daxi, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Purple Sandy Ware, Shanghai, 2008, p.70, pl.52.

The inscription on another teapot is translated 'traveling and versifying amidst mountain and water'.

Bonhams. 27 May 2012 4 p.m. Hong Kong. Yixing stoneware and scholar's objects from private collections