A large painted landscape brushpot by Cheng Men Qing Dynasty, dated 1877

robustly potted, the exterior of the large cylindrical vessel with an incurved rim painted in sepia tones, with accents of pale blue, yellow, green and pink washes, the continuous landscape unrolls from a large mountain with a small hut perched above the water with distant hills and pine trees on the horizon and fishermen in the foreground,  the meandering riverscape ends at a small thatched hut beneath a towering tree, inscribed to one side with a twenty-character poem, signed 'Cheng Men' and dated ding zhou (corresponding to 1877), with one seal of the artist, chengmen, the base inscribed in red fushi zengcang ('Fu's Treasured Collection'), stand

The overall condition is very good with only a few very light surface scratches to the enamelling.
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Cheng Men was a porcelain painter of the Qingjiang School of enamellers, who were active at Jingdezhen from about the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s and 1860s to the end of the dynasty.  Due to the upheaval, imperial porcelain production stopped in 1855, when many kilns were burnt to the ground by the Taiping rebels.  As a result, the potters had to fend for themselves.  The Qianjian School, formed during this time of transition, refocused their artistic skills into a group of wares painted on porcelain in a manner similar to literati panting, signing and adding seals to their works, even sometimes dating them.

Cheng Men was one of the finest enamellers of this school.  He appears to have trained in the imperial factory, but later produced a group of wares under his own name.  He was active from 1862 onwards; his last known work is dated 1908.  His work is also seen on snuff bottles. For more on Cheng's works, see Peter Wain, Awaiting Spring. Qianjiang Art on Chinese Porcelain, London, 1998, cat. nos. 3-24.