Finely carved around the exterior with five monkeys playing around on rocks among pine trees apparently trying to reach a seal hanging from a branch, all under a pale yellow glaze, the eyes picked out in black, the base with an impressed seal mark, Li Licheng zuo, wood stand.

Provenance: Michael Kaynes-Klitz Collection.

Note:  Carved pottery is a distinctive new genre which appeared from Jiaqing period onwards. These pieces have characteristically fine and fluid carving, and mostly covered in yellow or green glaze to imitate bamboo.

The maker of this brushpot, Li Licheng, is not recorded, but is probably a family member of Li Yucheng, sharing the same family name 'Li' and generation name 'Cheng'.

Compare a yellow brushpot carved with bamboo and rocks and 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 a Daoguang mark, illustrated in Geng Baochang, Ming and Qing Porcelain on Inspection, Beijing, 1993, p.306, both with the finely worked details on the rim to imitate bamboo like the present lot

Compare also a brushpot with cranes and mark of Yu Zhongkun, sold in our New York Rooms, 20 September 2000, lot 373