PROPERTY BELONGING TO THE ESTATE OF BLANCHETTE H ROCKEFELLER
A RARE SIGNED BAMBOO BRUSHPOT

Details
A RARE SIGNED BAMBOO BRUSHPOT
17TH CENTURY

Delicately carved in liuqing style through the pale outer skin with figures and pavilions in an extensive mountain retreat, the figures include scholars and attendants, some of the scholars are depicted approaching the retreat while others are shown in groups playing weiqi, taohu, conversing in a pavilion or seated at a low table eating, the lengthy inscription carved on one side below the rim signed Xihuang followed by a seal, also Xihuang, some cracks--5¼in. (13.4cm.) high
Further details
See illustration of two views

Lot Essay

The inscription is a famous Song Dynasty article by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072) entitled Zui weng ting ji (Ode of the Pavilion of Drunken Old Men), and refers to the scene depicted on the brushpot
Xihuang stands for Chang Xihuang, a late seventeenth century carver who perfected the liuqing style of carving

Compare the brushpot carved by Chang Xihuang, included in the exhibition, Chinese Bamboo Carving, Part I, Hong Kong, 1978, illustrated by Yee and Tam in the Catalogoue, no. 41. Two other brushpots by the same artist from the Freer Gallery of Art, were also included in the exhibition, nos. 16 and 17; another example in the Collection of Percival David was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1935-6, Catalogue no. 2944; and another was included in The Arts Council of Great Britain and the Oriental Ceramics Society 1957 exhibition Catalogue, pl. 102, no. 382

This lot was previously sold by Parke Bernet April 27/28, 1967, lot 356