YONGZHENG 1723 – 1735 Chinese Taste Porcelain
An 18th Century Chinese Porcelain Brushpot (Bitong). The Rectangular Form Created From Separate Slabs of Clay with Re-enforced Edges Sits on Four `L` Shaped Feet. The Sides are Decorated in a Delicate En Grisaille with Two River Landscapes in Leaf Shaped Reserved Set Against a Pea-Green Ground. The Sides have Smaller Circular Landscape Panels.
SOLD
- Condition
- N/A
- Size
- N/A
- Provenance
- N/A
- Stock number
- 22879
- References
- For a circular en grisaille brushpot with a similar leaf shape panel set against a coral ground see our `Sold Items` stock number 18740.
Photos
Information
Brushpots, Bitong :
Bitong, brushpots are not found in 17th or early 18th century European inventories unlike some other ceramic forms which fore fill a specific Chinese function. Blanc de chine `libation cups`, were for example, were made for drinking wine in China but they were imported in large numbers into the West. There curious forms appealed to Western tastes and were used in European displays or converted with the addition of a gilt bronze handle to become a bonbon dishes. Brushpots on the other hand seem to have been made exclusively for the Chinese domestic market, more specifically for the scholar literati class.Bitong are an essential part of literati`s desk, what is often referred to as a scholars desk. Other scholarly items for the desk might include a brush-rest, inkstone (for grinding the dry ink) a water pot for the water to add to the inkstone, a brushwasher as well as a table screen.