of cylindrical form, the red stoneware intricately decorated to the exterior in coloured slip, depicting a continuous landscape scene of tiered pavilion and huts sheltered amongst jagged rocky mountains and tall trees by the riverside, the base impressed with a square seal reading Huang Yulin zuo (made by Huang Yulin) 

Note: A native of Suzhou, Huang Yulin (c.1842-1914), is mentioned by K.S. Lo in The Stonewares of Yixing. From the Ming Period to the Present Day, London, 1986, pp. 149 and 153, as a literati potter who attained his xiucai degree in the Daoguang reign. Huang was popular amongst his contemporaries, including the well-known scholar Wu Dacheng, and according to Li Jingkang and Zhang Hong in Yangxian shahu tukao [A pictorial study of Yangxian pottery teapots], Hong Kong, 1937, vol. 1, p. 39, a teapot by him would sell for one tael of gold. Huang is best known for his teapots, such as an undecorated example impressed with an identical seal mark, illustrated in K.S. Lo, The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day, London, 1986, pl. 59

Scholars objects created by Huang Yulin are much less frequently found than teapots, and it is extremely rare to find a brushpot of this large size and high quality slip decoration of a continuous landscape, which derives from Qianlong era master potters, notably Yang Jichu. A brushpot by Yang Jichu with a slip decorated landscape is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Purple Sandy Ware, Hong Kong, 2008, p. 145, pl. 115, as is another bearing a Qianlong reign mark but clearly by the same hand, illustrated ibid, p. 143, pl. 113.

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