Lot 510. An Yixing stoneware square teapot and cover by Zheng Jingyu, Early Qing dynasty, w. 11.5 cm, 4 1/2  in. Estimate 100,000 — 150,000 HKD. Lot sold 562,500 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's. 

the four curved sides rising from a short foot to a short neck, the facetted curved spout set opposite a C-shaped handle, the domed cover surmounted by a knop, the base impressed with a seal mark reading Zheng Jingyu zhi ('made by Zheng Jingyu') 

Literature: Paul Moss, 'I-Hsing-Tea-Taste', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, vol. 10, no. 3, September 1978, p. 10, fig. 20

Note: Another closely related square teapot signed Zheng Jingyu, illustrated in Zisha Yinxiang, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Zhejiang, 2010, p. 38, was sold at Council Beijing, 4th June 2013, lot 2164.

The square form of this teapot appears to derive from late Ming prototypes; for example see one with an inscription dating it to the jiayin year of the cycle (corresponding to 1592), signed Xu Youquan, from the collection of Tan Jing, sold in these rooms, 29th November 1978, lot 376, and published in Paul Moss, 'I-Hsing-Tea-Taste', Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, vol. 10, no. 3, September 1978, p. 6, fig. 1. 

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 01 Jun 2017