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Lot Essay
This exquisite brush pot displays superb artistry which resonates well with literati paintings characterised by brisk, seemingly careless brushstrokes and simple composition. In fact, it may evoke the memory of paintings by the Ming dynasty painter Xu Wei, well-known for his works on crabs. The combination of two crabs and reeds conveys the auspicious message of ‘May you pass high on the civil service examination’. The formidable crab shell can be associated with armour, which reads as jia in Chinese. Jia also has another meaning denoting ‘first place’. Two crabs, together, forms the pun erjia, which stands for the second class of successful candidates in the civil service examination. The reed is a pun for chuanlu, referring to the announcement of the winner amongst this second class of successful candidates. Hence the motifs on the current brush pot deliver the well-intended wish of scoring high in the examination.
The artist of this brush pot, Yang Jichu, is recorded in Chongkan jingxi xianzhi (The Republished Jingxi Gazetteer), compiled by Tang Zhongmian during the Qing dynasty. Yang is noted as being active during the same period as Chen Hanwen, mid 17th-early 18th Century. Like Chen Hanwen, Yang Jichu is famous for his work on Yixing wares, especially those, like the current brush pot, which are painted in coloured slips. However most surviving Yang Jichu brush pots are decorated with landscape motifs. The design on the current brush pot is extremely rare, and attests to the versatility and depth of Yang Jichu’s artistic talent.
Compare to several Yixing brush pots by Yang Jichu decorated with landscapes, including an exceptional example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2016, lot 3374; and two in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Purple Sandy Ware, Beijing, 2008, nos. 115 and 116. Interestingly, the Beijing Palace Museum also has a brush pot painted in similar style with a scholar seated in a thatch-roofed pavilion overlooking a lake beside a willow tree which bears a Qianlong mark, illustrated ibid., no. 113. Compare also to two other brush pots decorated in similar technique with Yang Jichu seals, one formerly in the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2012, lot 1246; the other from the Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Hawthorn Collection, sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 28 November 2011, lot 208.
The artist of this brush pot, Yang Jichu, is recorded in Chongkan jingxi xianzhi (The Republished Jingxi Gazetteer), compiled by Tang Zhongmian during the Qing dynasty. Yang is noted as being active during the same period as Chen Hanwen, mid 17th-early 18th Century. Like Chen Hanwen, Yang Jichu is famous for his work on Yixing wares, especially those, like the current brush pot, which are painted in coloured slips. However most surviving Yang Jichu brush pots are decorated with landscape motifs. The design on the current brush pot is extremely rare, and attests to the versatility and depth of Yang Jichu’s artistic talent.
Compare to several Yixing brush pots by Yang Jichu decorated with landscapes, including an exceptional example sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2016, lot 3374; and two in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Purple Sandy Ware, Beijing, 2008, nos. 115 and 116. Interestingly, the Beijing Palace Museum also has a brush pot painted in similar style with a scholar seated in a thatch-roofed pavilion overlooking a lake beside a willow tree which bears a Qianlong mark, illustrated ibid., no. 113. Compare also to two other brush pots decorated in similar technique with Yang Jichu seals, one formerly in the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2012, lot 1246; the other from the Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Hawthorn Collection, sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 28 November 2011, lot 208.