AN INSCRIBED DOCUMENTARY MANSHENG-TYPE YIXING STONEWARE TEAPOT AND COVER QING DYNASTY, SIGNED YANG PENGNIAN AND GUO PINJIA |

exquisitely potted of rich reddish-brown stoneware, the facetted compressed globular body set with a curved spout and a loop handle at the angled shoulders, the raised flat cover surmounted by a semi-circular loop knop, inscribed on the exterior in ancient script with an inscription reading 'Shutao made this hu vessel to be treasured and used forever' and dated Jiaqing yihai year (in accordance with 1815), the base of the handle impressed with a square seal reading Pengnian, the base impressed with a square seal reading Amantuoshi

Good condition with just minor surface wear.
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This is one of a series of teapots of documentary importance in encapsulating the literati approach to teapot appreciation in the early 19th century. The extensive inscription intricately incised in kaishu records that the piece was made to commemorate a literati tea-tasting party that took place at the Hall of Interlocking Mulberry, the official residence of Chen Mansheng at Liyang in the autumn of Jiaqing yihai year (1815)  and the names of the fifteen literati who attended. The shoulder is also inscribed with an elegant inscription in bronze seal script.

The fifteen literati listed in attendance at the party were: Jiang Tingxiang; Qian Shumei; Niu Feishi; Zhang Laojiang; Lu Xiaofu; Zhu Litang; Zhang Shengya; Shi Xinluo; Gao Xiquan; Shi Lantang; Gao Wuzhuang; Miu Langfu; Sun Zhongpi; Shen Chunluo and Lu Xingqing. It is likely that a number of commemorative teapots were made, possibly for all those who attended the party, and others are recorded, including an identical teapot from the collection of K.S. Lo, included in the exhibition I-Hsing Ware, China House Gallery, New York, 1977, cat. no. 17, and illustrated in K.S. Lo, Yixing: From the Ming Period to the Present Day, Hong Kong, 1986, p. 64, pl. XXX1, and discussed on p.107, where the author extols the sheer level of importance in the inscriptions, a 'who's who of scholars and artists of the period', and notes how Guo Lin (Guo Pinjia) demonstrated his skill by carving the archaic bronze-style inscription on the shoulder of the teapot in dazhuang script Shutao zuo hu qi yong bao yong ('Shutao made this hu vessel to be treasured and used forever').