Bonhams 1793 : An Yixing stoneware 'magpies and willow' vase Signed Ren Janting and Xu Xiutang

27 May 2012 16:00 CST Hong Kong
Yixing stoneware and scholar's objects from private collections
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An Yixing stoneware 'magpies and willow' vase

Signed Ren Janting and Xu Xiutang
Of baluster form rising from a recessed foot to a high shoulder, the waisted neck surmounted by a flared mouthrim, the body plain with finely incised magpies perched on a willow tree branch, all above an incised dated inscription and a seal mark, fitted box.
16.1cm high. (2).

Sold for HK$ 112,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

Ren Ganting (1889-1968), style name Foushuo, was a native of Dingshu Town, Yixing. He was a famous carver who started learning the craft from a young age. Ren subsequently participated in Yixing's Shushan Pottery Production Cooperative. An experienced carver skilled in various techniques, his artistic incisions were imbued with power and were particularly noted for his landscape and bird-and-flower designs. Most of the current Yixing 'zisha' (purple clay) structural potters were once Ren's students, such as Xu Xiutang, Tan Quanhai, Bao Zhiqiang, Shen Hanshen, Mao Guoqiang and other masters.

Xu Xiutang (1937-), from Shushan, Yixing, is a contemporary master of purple clay sculpture. He studied stoneware carving under Ren Ganting in 1954, then turned his attention to sculpture. Familiar with the production of purple clay, he values the culture and has profound expertise in pottery arts (moulding and carving), teapot-making as well as calligraphy and inscriptions. In the 1980s Xu was invited to many international art festivals for cultural exchange. His works are also in several museum collections.

Illustrated 出版:
Ho Chien, Purple Clay. Wellington Wang's Collection of Yixing Wares, Taipei, 1993, p.202.
何健，《紫泥王度宜興珍藏冊》，奇園國際藝術中心，台北，1993，頁202。

朱泥刻鳥紋任淦庭及徐秀棠合作瓶

「公元一九六四年夏，七十六老人缶碩作，秀棠氏刻。」
「合作」篆文方印

瓶敝口，折沿長頸，折肩，肩下微寬，直圈足;上刻有樹上小鳥兩隻，構圖周密，刀工有力，鐡線銀勾;下題「公元一九六四年夏，七十六歲(老)人缶碩作，秀棠氏刻。」，並鈐有「合作」篆文方印。

據瓶上刻款，此瓶應是任淦庭作、徐秀棠刻圖，其時徐秀棠剛隨任淦庭學陶刻約10年之久，是師徒合作之作。

任淦庭(1889-1968)，字缶碩，宜興丁蜀鎮人，著名陶刻名家，自小學陶刻，後參加宜興蜀山陶業生產合作社。善運用不同刀法，運刀老練，筆力遒勁，以山水、花鳥為主，現宜興從事紫砂的骨幹技術員，大多是其學生，如徐秀棠、譚泉海、鮑志強、沈漢生、毛國強等名家。

徐秀棠(1937- )當代紫砂陶塑名家，宜興蜀山人，1954年隨任淦庭學陶刻，後學雕塑，他熟悉紫砂生產工藝，重視紫砂文化，陶塑、陶刻、造壺、書銘皆有較深造詣，80年代應邀至多個國際藝術節進行文化交流，其作品曾收入予多間博物館。