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Lot Essay
Chen Mingyuan, one of the most famous and versatile Yixing potters, was active during the Kangxi/Yongzheng periods (1662-1735). His works included teapots and articles for the scholar's table, many simulating objects from nature such as those in the K.S. Lo Collection, now in the Flagstaff House Museum Tea Ware, illustrated in The Art of the Yixing Potter, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1990, pp. 139-142. Among those in the K.S. Lo Collection are illustrated with the artist's sealmarks, ibid., a flowering prunus branch, no. 19; a caltrop fruit, no. 20, a water-chestnut, no. 21; a walnut, no. 22; peanuts, no. 23; a chestnut, no. 24, and an arrowroot, no. 25.
The short inscription is derived from a poem by the Song poet, Su Dongpo (1037-1110), which reads: guqing ruoni he qiezheng, which Dr Lo, op. cit., Hong Kong, 1986, p. 83, as:
The Spirit is so refined,
The body is so smooth,
That makes a perfect harmony.
The author also mentioned that: "... the presence of inscriptions on the body, instead of on the base, indicates what was to be the typical Qing style of decorating a pot. It is interesting to compare this pot with the example, also based on a pumpkin, by Mingyuan's father, Chen Ziqi. The son's work is much more refined than the father's", ibid. Chen Ziqi's teapot is illustrated by T. Bartholomew, I-hsing Ware, China Institute in America, 1977, pl. 4.
The short inscription is derived from a poem by the Song poet, Su Dongpo (1037-1110), which reads: guqing ruoni he qiezheng, which Dr Lo, op. cit., Hong Kong, 1986, p. 83, as:
The Spirit is so refined,
The body is so smooth,
That makes a perfect harmony.
The author also mentioned that: "... the presence of inscriptions on the body, instead of on the base, indicates what was to be the typical Qing style of decorating a pot. It is interesting to compare this pot with the example, also based on a pumpkin, by Mingyuan's father, Chen Ziqi. The son's work is much more refined than the father's", ibid. Chen Ziqi's teapot is illustrated by T. Bartholomew, I-hsing Ware, China Institute in America, 1977, pl. 4.