Lot 273. A blue and white brushpot (bitong), Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Diameter 8 in., 20.4 cm. Estimate 60,000 — 80,000 USD. Lot Sold 100,000 USD. Photo Sotheby's.

well-painted on the exterior with a continuous narrative scene depicting the meeting between Xu You shown tending oxen who famously declines the offer of the mandate of heaven extended by Emperor Yao, standing beneath a parasol with guards and servants in attendance, all within a landscape of trees, rockwork and scudding clouds above, the recessed base with an artemisia leaf.

Provenance: Berwald Oriental Art, London, 18th September 1997.
Collection of Dr. Lowell S. Young, San Francisco, collection no. 42.

Literature: Marchant, The Dr. Lowell Young Collection: Ming and Qing Blue and White Porcelain, London, 2012, no. 23.

Note: The scene depicted on the brushpot depicts Emperor Yao in a meeting with Xu You, a minister who had left official life to become an oxherd, living life as a recluse. Emperor Yao had wanted to abdicate and sought out Xu, a former minister, in a bid to get Xu to return to the capital and take over the reins of the country.

A brushpot with similar subject matter from the collection of Mrs. Eugene L. Garbatty on extended loan to the Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, is illustrated in Stephen Little, Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period: 1620-1683, New York, 1983, no. 20. Another from the Collection of Peter and Nancy Thompson was sold in our London rooms, 7th November 2012, lot 39.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Works of Art, New York, 17 march 2015, 02:00 PM