22. M5235

• The couplet reads:

Jiang yan meng bi sheng hua
Ju shi wen zhang .. .. .. ..,
“Jiang Yan’s aspiration for literary beauty,
is likened to flowers blooming from his writing brush. The standard of writing is inspired by classical literature .. .. .. ..”

• Signed by Yu ren, “Jade man”.
• From a private French collection.
• Sold by Pierre Saque, 12 Avenue Georges V, Paris, with original label circa 1920.
• 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, and is illustrated by Sam Marsh in Brushpots: A Collector’s View, PB69, pp. 180-182, where the author notes that the date could be either 1672 or 1612.