Lot 168. A carved and moulded yellow-glazed brushpot, bitong, 19th century; 6 ½ in. (16.5 cm.) wide. Estimate: GBP 8,000 - GBP 12,000 (USD 10,424 - USD 15,636). Price realised GBP 85,000. © Christie's Imges Ltd 2019.

The exterior is carved with scholars and pavilions in a mountainous river landscape strewn with gnarled pine trees. The interior, exterior and base are covered with a warm yellow glaze. The base is incised with a six-character maker's mark reading Xian YuanChen Guo Zhi Zuo, 'made by Chen Guozhi of Xian Yuan'. 

Provenance: Private English Collection, formerly in a private collection in France, most of which was purchased in Paris during the 1960s and 1970s, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Note: Carved pottery is a distinctive new genre which appeared from the Jiaqing period onwards. These pieces have characteristically fine and fluid carving, and are mostly covered in yellow or green glazes to imitate bamboo.
Compare a yellow-glazed brushpot carved with bamboo and rocks and with a Jiaqing seal mark in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Liu Liangyu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, 5, p.254; and another carved with landscape and figures and with a Daoguang mark, illustrated in Geng Baochang, Ming and Qing Porcelain on Inspection, Beijing, 1993, p.306.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 14 May 2019