Lot 3777. A superb lacquered ivory hexagonal brushpot, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 14.3 cm., 5 5/8  in. Estimate 2,200,000 — 3,000,000 HKD. Lot Sold 5,680,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby’s.

carved with straight sides rising from a compressed hexagonal base to a rim of corresponding shape, all supported on six short bracket feet, the exterior reverse-decorated  with a continuous scene depicting two birds hovering over gnarled branches bearing prunus buds and blossoms, with several leafy small bamboo shoots rising from below, all against a black lacquer ground, between two bands of key-fret borders, the base decorated with a hexagon enclosing a brush, a stylised ingot (ding) and a ruyi bloom, wood stand.

Provenance: Collection of Edward T. Chow, thence by descent.

Note: The design on this exceptional ivory brushpot is rendered through a complex process of reverse decoration, in which the birds and branches are reserved in the natural colour of the ivory material against the black lacquer ground. Another rare example, also from the Edward T. Chow collection, illustrated by M. Beurdeley, The Chinese Collector through the Centuries, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo, Japan, 1966, p. 242, no. 101, and in Chinese Ivories from the Shang to the Qing, Oriental Ceramic Society and the British Museum, London, 1984, p. 154, no. 182, was sold at Christie’s New York, 21st March 2000, lot 53.

Sotheby’s. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong , 08 oct. 2014