A PALE-GREEN GLAZED ANHUA-DECORATED BRUSHPOT, BITONG Circa 1640-1650

A PALE-GREEN GLAZED ANHUA-DECORATED BRUSHPOT, BITONG Circa 1640-1650 The tall narrow vessel delicately incised around the exterior with flittering butterflies, peonies and bamboo, all between a border of waves and foam at the foot and a band of floral scrolls at the mouth, all covered in a thin translucent pale green glaze. 16.6cm (6 1/2in) high. Footnotes: 約1640年至1650年間 青釉暗花花蝶紋筆筒 Provenance: Eileen Lesouëf, France Ben Janssens Oriental Art, London, 17 June 1999 Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: Ben Janssens Oriental Art, Seventeenth Century Blue and White Porcelain from the Private Collection of Eileen Lesouëf , London, 1999, no.44 S.Marsh, Brushpots: A Collector's View , Hong Kong, 2020, pp.170-171 來源：Eileen Lesouëf，法國 倫敦古董商 Ben Janssens Oriental Art，1999年6月17日 錄著：Ben Janssens Oriental Art, 《Seventeenth Century Blue and White Porcelain from the Private Collection of Eileen Lesouëf》，倫敦，1999年，44號 S.Marsh，《Brushpots: A Collector's View》，香港，2020年，頁170-171 The anhua or 'hidden' design on the body is of butterflies ( hudie ) and tree peonies ( fuguihua ), which is a rebus for 'May you have an abundance of high status and wealth' ( Fu die fu gui ). The present lot is covered in a thin, transparent, pale greenish, high-fired glaze. This glaze is very similar in colour to Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) qingbai glazes, which found favour at the Song Court for their elegance and simplicity. Later generations too admired qingbai glazes and the references to the elegance of the Song dynasty. However, while hinting at archaism, the present lot also is very much of its period. The incised borders are typical of 'Transitional' era vessels that reflect scholar's tastes for scrolls and albums with borders. Above and below the design are borders bounded by double lines. The upper border is a gently undulating floral vine and the bottom border is a waves and foam pattern. These incised borders were time-consuming to make as they required the clay to be neither too hard nor too soft. Thus, by the Kangxi period, they were replaced by a fashion for painted borders. Compare the incised zigzag wave border and dense foliate border on a blue and white brushpot, Chongzhen, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Collections , Shanghai, 2005, no.19. See also a very rare white-glazed anhua decorated bell, circa 1640, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 1 December 2020, lot 16. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com