AN INSCRIBED SPHERICAL WOOD 'PRUNUS' WATER VESSEL SIGNED MEISHI, QING DYNASTY

the well figured wood of a honey-brown colour, carved to a compressed globular form and engraved around the mouth with branches bearing blooms and buds, signed Meishi, set with a boxwood domed cover and stand 

Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, July 1994.

This charming vessel is unusual for its carved decoration, as globular vessels of flattened shape are more commonly known undecorated, such as a slightly smaller example lacking the cover, from the collection of Mr and Mrs R.P. Piccus, illustrated in Robert P. Piccus (ed.), Wood From the Scholar’s Table, Hong Kong, 1984, pl. 44; and another, made of zitan, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 19th January 1988, lot 487.