AN YIXING TEAPOT AND COVER

Details

AN YIXING TEAPOT AND COVER
MID-19TH CENTURY

Made for the Thai market, of rounded rectangular section, a bowstring band encircling the body interrupted by the bent, bamboo-molded spout, the upright handle formed as two twisted canes of bamboo, and the fitted cover decorated with leafy bamboo stalks issuing from the base of the bamboo-form knop, of rich chocolate brown color, the base impressed with a square seal of a rat and the interior of the cover incised with a two-character maker's mark, Rongqing
8½in. (21.6cm.) high

Lot Essay

A similar teapot signed Rongqing and dated to the end of the 19th century is illustrated in K.S. Lo Collection in the Flagstaff Museum of Tea Ware, Part 2, Hong Kong, 1984, no. 84. The seal of a rat on the base includes a Thai inscription, which may be translated, 'One hundred and ten years of Bangkok, Year of the Rat', which corresponds to the reign of King Rama IV, circa 1850