23. M5202

The verse is from the poem Cheng tian si ye yo, “A Night-time Visit to Chengtian Temple” by Su Shi (1037-1101):

he ye wu yue? he chu wu zhu bai?
dan shao xian ren zhi wu liang ren zhe er
“What night is there without a moon?
Where are there no bamboos or cypresses?
But there are few idle people like the two of us.

• Signed by Dinghe shanren.
• From a Hong Kong private collection.
• A similar brushpot is illustrated by Wang Yamin and Huang Weiwen in Dehua Wares Collected by the Palace Museum II, no. 239, pp. 522/3.
• Two others were included by Marchant in their exhibition of Blanc de Chine, 2006, nos. 81 & 81A, pp. 122/3, the latter, with an incised six-character signature and date ren zi xia Lin yan yang, “summer, Ren zi year [corresponding to 1612], signed Lin yan yang”, was sold by Bonham’s London in their auction of The Marsh Collection, 2nd November 2023, lot 13; another slightly waisted example is illustrated by Robert H. Blumenfield in Blanc de Chine, the Great Porcelain of Dehua, p. 183A.