18TH/19TH CENTURY The exterior painted with brown lacquer imitating wood, incised with a spray of prunus, dated 'spring of yi ji year', signed Ren Shan and Wu Jiang Xiao Shan, the interior and base decorated with red lacquer, 12.8cm. Provenance: from an English private collection, acquired in the 1970s. Cf. Charm of Bamboo, pp.73-74 and 93-94 for similar bitongs in the collection of the Zhejiang provincial Museum.