Lot 677. A pale lime-green-glazed carved brush pot, bitong, Wang Bingrong, circa 1820-1875; 5½ in. (14 cm.) high. Estimate 8,000 - USD 12,000 USD. Price realised 15,000 USD. © Christie's Image Ltd 2008.

The sides finely carved with figures and pavilions in a setting of trees and rocks on the banks of a lake, with mountains in the distance, covered with an opaque glaze of pale lime-green color that continues over the flat rim and covers the base and the four-character seal mark, Wang Bingrong zuo (made by Wang Bingrong).

Provenance: English private collection. 

Note: According to T. Miller and H. Hui in Elegance in Relief: Carved Porcelain from Jingdezhen of the 19th to Early 20th Centuries, Hong Kong, 2006, Wang Bingrong was "the most commercially successful of the Daoguang period porcelain carvers and was probably still active through at least one of the two subsequent reigns" and that his "enduring popularity owes much to the bold simplicity with which he executed classical motifs". See Miller and Hui, ibid, pp. 128-9, no. 21, for a pale yellow-glazed brush pot of similar style.