A BAMBOO 'BOATING' BRUSH POT BY WANG JICHANG, QIANLONG PERIOD China, 1735-1796. Intricately carved with a majestic lakeshore landscape, depicted with an elderly man looking out from a small open pavilion nestled in a fenced garden grown with bamboo and pines towards two boating parties on the lake, one boat with its sail raised up the mast and seated with eight figures, the other smaller fishing boat being pulled by two boys running across a small bridge, all below rocky mountains and swirling clouds, and above a seal mark reading 'Wang Jichang Zhi'. Provenance: English private collection. Paper label with inventory number to base. Condition: Fine condition with old wear, one tiny loss and several natural age cracks. Weight: 511.4 g Dimensions: Height 16 cm, Diameter 13.7 cm This cylindrical brush pot is signed Wang Jichang, a bamboo carver active in the mid-Qing dynasty and a native of Jiading, Jiangsu province. In this bucolic boating and fishing scene, Wang skillfully picks out elements of the motif in a range of depths and textures. Note the variation in cuts between the trees, evoking a sense of wild forest, and the carving around the figures that brings them into focus as the principal actors in this narrative. Literature comparison: Compare a brush pot carved with a similar boating scene, but signed Shanmei, in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in Ip Yee & Laurence C. S. Tam, Chinese Bamboo Carving, Part I, Hong Kong, 1978, pl. 40, together with a slightly larger example, pl. 67, and three brush pots sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, the first of slightly smaller size, 14th May 1983, lot 648, and the second and third of similar size, 25th May 1979, lot 874, and 10th April 2006, lot 1648. Auction result comparison: Compare with a closely related bitong by the same artist at Sotheby's Hong Kong in Important Chinese Art, 03 April 2019, lot 3714, bought in at an estimate of HKD $250,000-350,000. 竹雕《汎舟》，王紀常，乾隆時期 中國，1735-1796。錯綜複雜的雕刻，雄偉的湖岸景觀，是一個老人在一個小亭子遠望，這個亭子坐落在一個松竹林中。湖上的兩個划船聚會，一艘船坐著八個人，另一艘較小的漁船被兩個男孩拉著，穿過一個小橋。落款"王紀常制"。 來源：英國私人收藏。底部有藏家收藏編號。 品相：品相良好，老磨損，一道輕微缺損和一些天然年代裂紋。 重量：511.4 克 尺寸：高16 厘米，直徑 13.7 厘米 拍賣結果比較：同一藝術家的相近作品于香港蘇富比《重要中國藝術》，2019年4月3日，拍號3714，估價HKD $250.000-350.000。