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Descriptif du lot
The present brush pot is exceptional for its finely rendered 300-character inscription of Wen Tianxiang’s celebrated Zhengqi ge 正氣歌, or Song of Righteousness, accompanied by a corresponding pavilion landscape. Wen Tianxiang (1236–1283), a Southern Song official, scholar, and poet, composed the poem while imprisoned in Dadu, the Yuan capital. Written in a moment of profound political crisis and personal adversity, the poem gives voice to the enduring force of haoran zhengqi 浩然正氣, the “vast, righteous vital force” that manifests itself most powerfully in times of political peril.
The inscription is followed by a seal reading Mushi ju 木石居, or “Studio of Wood and Rock.” In his article “Where Potter Met Poets: A Kangxi Vase with a Poetry Gathering in Jingdezhen,” Arts of Asia, March–April 2017, pp. 98–104, Lu Pengliang identifies the founder of Mushiju as Zhao Wenzong, a local official who was well-connected with the poets, calligraphers, and painters of his day. The fine porcelains associated with this studio demonstrate the unusually close collaboration between literati patrons and ceramic artisans that flourished during the Kangxi period. Works bearing the Mushi ju seal are often distinguished by the integration of poetic inscription and pictorial imagery, as seen, for example, on the blue-and-white vase formerly in the collection of Julia and John Curtis, and gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary (no. 2020.73.6), illustrated ibid., figs. 1–4. A Kangxi famille verte vase, similarly decorated with a poetic inscription, corresponding pictorial scene, and Mushi ju iron-red seal, was sold in Irene Roosevelt Aitken: The Library, Bedrooms and Objects of Vertu; Christie’s New York, 13 February 2026, lot 501.
It is noteworthy that recorded porcelains associated with Mushi ju appear to be primarily in blue and white or famille verte enamels. The present brush pot, with its gilt inscription and decoration reserved on a powder-blue ground, thus represents an exceptionally rare, and possibly unique, expression of this porcelain studio tradition.
The inscription is followed by a seal reading Mushi ju 木石居, or “Studio of Wood and Rock.” In his article “Where Potter Met Poets: A Kangxi Vase with a Poetry Gathering in Jingdezhen,” Arts of Asia, March–April 2017, pp. 98–104, Lu Pengliang identifies the founder of Mushiju as Zhao Wenzong, a local official who was well-connected with the poets, calligraphers, and painters of his day. The fine porcelains associated with this studio demonstrate the unusually close collaboration between literati patrons and ceramic artisans that flourished during the Kangxi period. Works bearing the Mushi ju seal are often distinguished by the integration of poetic inscription and pictorial imagery, as seen, for example, on the blue-and-white vase formerly in the collection of Julia and John Curtis, and gifted to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary (no. 2020.73.6), illustrated ibid., figs. 1–4. A Kangxi famille verte vase, similarly decorated with a poetic inscription, corresponding pictorial scene, and Mushi ju iron-red seal, was sold in Irene Roosevelt Aitken: The Library, Bedrooms and Objects of Vertu; Christie’s New York, 13 February 2026, lot 501.
It is noteworthy that recorded porcelains associated with Mushi ju appear to be primarily in blue and white or famille verte enamels. The present brush pot, with its gilt inscription and decoration reserved on a powder-blue ground, thus represents an exceptionally rare, and possibly unique, expression of this porcelain studio tradition.