This slightly waisted brush pot – being one centimetre wider at the glazed rim than at the base – is decorated in a vibrant under glaze blue. The glaze on the outside is more shiny and smooth than that on the inside - suggesting the application of two different glazes. There is a shallow groove to the foot rim of the pot and the glazed base has an apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark.
The scene is thought to be as that described in Part I/Act II of “The Romance of the Western Chamber” – referred to as “The Renting of the Quarters in the Monastery”. Height 13 cm.
The Avalon Collection. This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods
has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction. Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.