Very fine and rare brush pot (bitong) brightly decorated in famille rose (fencai) palette enamels, c. 1725 early in the Yongzheng reign.

Very fine and rare brush pot (bitong) brightly decorated in famille rose (fencai) palette enamels with Hou Yi carrying a bowls while gazing at the red sun above, beside him two boys, one proffering food the other holding a vase with flowers, all within a balustraded garden with gnarled pine, with red half-leaf maker’s mark, c. 1725 early in the Yongzheng reign, Qing dynasty, h. 11,4 cm, 4½ in. 3-22364

Provenance:

• The Oriental Art Gallery, London;
• The Marsh Collection, sold at Bonhams, London, 2022, under the title “Art for the Literati”.

Illustrated: The Marsh Collection, sold at Bonhams, London, 2022, under the title “Art for the Literati”, lot 28.

Literature: Children in Chinese Art, Honolulu 2002, p. 144 for a 18th century painting with the similar design of an archer surrounded by children at the Musée des Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris.

Note: Hou Yi was a mythological archer, also given the title of “Lord Archer”. According to Chinese mythology, there were originally ten suns that would scorch the earth. The mythical king Yao asked Hou Yi to rein in the suns. At first, Hou Yi tried to reason with them; then he pretends to shoot at them with his bow to intimidate them; then finally he began to shoot down the suns one by one leaving only one left. As a reward, Hou Yi was gifted the pill of immortality by the gods, which the present lot shows him holding.

非常精美而且罕見的粉彩神話人物圖筆筒，釉色鮮明，器壁畫松柏園中，后羿手端碗，抬頭看空中一輪紅日，身旁兩孩童，一個在分發食物，一個手執花瓶，器底有半片葉子形狀的紅色底款，約1725年，清雍正早期，高11.4釐米，4 ½英吋。

藏品來源：

• 倫敦東方藝廊；

• 2022年倫敦邦瀚斯“文人藝術”拍賣，Marsh舊藏

出版：2022年倫敦邦瀚斯“文人藝術”拍賣拍品號28，Marsh舊藏

參考文獻：《中國藝術裡的兒童》，2002年檀香山出版，見第144頁，巴黎集美博物館藏一幅18世紀的畫，畫中有兒童圍繞著一名射手。

備註：后羿是中國神話中的一位神射手。傳說古代天上有十個太陽。堯帝命令后羿去征服這十個太陽。起初后羿嘗試和太陽講道理，無果；他便拿起他的弓箭假裝要射他們來震懾他們，亦無用；於是后羿射下九日。后羿被賞賜仙丹。這一件筆筒中繪的后羿碗中正是被賜予的仙丹。