The cylindrical ivory-toned body carved with peony blooms and foliage with incised surface decoration.

The dating of certain groups of blanc de chine has undergone a reassessment in recent decades partly as a result of the many pieces found in the Hatcher shipwreck, which is dateable to around 1643, and the study of inscribed and dated pieces. It has been established by scholars such as John Ayers, and in a series of exhibitions by S. Marchant & Sons, that much was made in the later years of the Ming Dynasty.

Another brushpot with pierced key-fret design bears an inscription stating that it was made by the Lin family in the reign of the Tianqi Emperor (1620-1627)[i], and another offered by S. Marchant & Sons in 2006 is dated ‘Summer, ren zi year’ or 1612[ii].

A Blanc de Chine pierced brushpot with silver-gilt mounts, probably France 1729-1730, The Wittelsbach Schatzkammer, Residenz, Munich (no. 1248)

A very similar brushpot in the Schatzkammer of the Munich Residenz (along with a matching basin), has elaborate silver-gilt mounts with a finial formed as an enamel frog which are thought to be Paris goldsmiths work[iii]. The vessel has a glass liner to make it usable as an ewer.

Much later blanc de chine was made for the European export market, but a brush holder such as this was intended for the Chinese domestic market.

Condition:
Small stress cracks visible between leaves

References:

Ayers 1986
John Ayers, ‘Blanc-de-Chine: Some Reflections’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 1986-1987, pp. 13-35

Donnelly 1969
P. J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine: The Porcelain of Tȇhua in Fukien (Faber & Faber, London, 1969)

Christie’s Amsterdam B.V. The Nanking Cargo, Chinese Porcelain and Gold, European Glass and Stoneware, recovered by Captain Michael Hatcher from a European ship wrecked in the South China Seas. Amsterdam, 1986

Marchant 2006
Exhibition, Blanc de Chine, S. Marchant & Son, November 2006

Scheurleer 1980
D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinesisches und japanisches Porzellan in europäischen Fassungen, (Klinghardt & Biermann, 1980)

Sheaf 1988
Colin Sheaf, Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record, (Phaidon 1988)

Price: £8,500

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[i] Donnelly 1969, plate 9a. Donnelly did not accept the Tianqi date when he published his pioneering work but subsequent scholars such as John Ayers and David Freedman do not doubt it.

[ii] Marchant 2006, p. 123, no. 81a.

[iii] Scheurleer 1980, p. 291, fig. 238.