Lot 1141
  • 1141

A finely carved bamboo 'figural' brushpot Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 HKD
bidding is closed

Description

of classic cylindrical form, resting on three short feet, the exterior skillfully carved with a continuous mountain landscape scene of the Literary Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, depicting scholars engaged in various leisurely pursuits, with attendants close by in and around a multi-storied pavilion set within a tranquil wooded valley filled with bamboo, pine and paulownia trees and tall rocky outcrops with a mountain brook with rippling surface flowing below

Catalogue Note

The scene illustrated on this brushpot comes from Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Literary Gathering at the Orchid Pavilion, where in 353 AD, Wang invited 41 friends to join him for the purification of the rites of spring.  They drank wine from cups floated down the stream and had a poetry writing contest.  See a brushpot with of the same subject in Dr. Ip Yee's collection, illustrated in Ip Yee and Laurence Tam, Chinese Bamboo Carving, part I, Hong Kong Museum of Art, cat. no. 79; and another one in the collection of Julia Cheng, illustrated in Wang Shixiang and Wan-go Wang,  Bamboo Carving of China, China Institute, New York, 1983, cat. no. 71.