Teapot

The shape of this elegant teapot is unique to I-hsing pottery and is likely inspired by the square fang hu storage vessels of the Han dynasty (206 b.c.-a.d. 220). The teapot is decorated with a solitary fisherman standing on rocks from which trees grow next to a pavilion. There are mountains in the far distance. This pictorial scene of nature, undoubtedly inspired by ink landscape paintings, would have appealed directly to scholars who became the chief patrons of I-hsing ware during the early Ch'ing period. The recessed base bears an impressed six-character seal-script mark which reads Made by Hsu Shun-fang of Ching-ch'i. Ching-ch'i is the old name for I-hsing, the famous kiln site in Kiangsu province that specialized in scholar's taste ceramics.