KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

This finely painted brush pot bearing an imperial reign mark and decorated with a tranquil landscape is extremely rare and possibly unique. While there are a number of surviving Kangxi-period brush pots made by popular kilns, exceedingly few examples were produced in the imperial kilns bearing a Kangxi reign mark.

Recorded examples of brush pots bearing Kangxi reign marks include three in the Palace Museum Collection, each decorated with a long inscription of different content in cobalt blue, all illustrated on the museum website; one decorated with insects and rocks in underglaze blue, red and celadon glaze, in the Shanghai Museum (illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 87); and the current brush pot. It is notable that among all recoded examples, only the current brush pot is decorated with a landscape. No other example appears to have been published.

A Kangxi brush pot of comparable quality, painted in light brush strokes with geese and landscape, but inscribed on the base with an apocryphal Chenghua mark, formerly in the Butler Family Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 November 2023, lot 3008.