Lot 20. A rare wucai brushpot, bitong, Chongzhen-Shunzhi period (1627-1661); 19cm (7 1/2in) diam. Sold for £75,900 (Estimate £30,000 - 50,000). © Bonhams 2001-2022

Exquisitely decorated around the exterior with a bearded scholar official on a balustraded terrace carrying a tablet in his right hand and pointing with his left hand to the sun, behind him two attendants with large fans and three boy-attendants carrying a guqin, robes of office and a saddle, all amidst gnarled rocks and shrubbery, beneath a wide border at the mouth of green and red dots.

Provenance: John R. Berwald Oriental Ceramics & Works of Art, London, 20 June 1993.

Published and Illustrated: S.Marsh, Brushpots: A Collector's View, Hong Kong, 2020, pp.216-219.

Note: The present brushpot is unusual both for the rare decorative border beneath the rim, and also its large size. Although 'blobby dots' can be found on the borders of several brushpots from the transitional period, its combination with red and green is particularly unique.

The brushpot is laden with auspicious meaning. The scholar-official pointing at the sun provides a rebus: the rising sun suggests a rise in prosperity. 'Pointing at the sun' (zhi ri) is a pun for 'day by day', suggesting the blessing zhiri gaosheng 指日高陞 (May you day by day rise in rank).

See a related wucai brushpot, early Kangxi, illustrated in Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong, 1981, p.35. Compare also with a related blue and white brushpot with similar composition of figures on a terrace, Chongzhen, illustrated by T.Canepa and K.Butler, Leaping The Dragon Gate: The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Porcelain, London, 2021, p.224.

Bonhams. THE MARSH COLLECTION ART FOR THE LITERATI, 3 November 2022, London, New Bond Street