The squat melon-form teapot is modelled with a moulded handle, spout, and cover, all decorated with a 'squirrel and grapes' design which trails over the body of the vessel. The inside of the cover and the underside of the teapot are marked with the seal of Jiang Rong, and the cover with a further small seal mark. The jar is decorated with raised nodes at the rim and is covered in a bright mottled blue glaze which thins to a mushroom tone at the rim.
The teapot, 7.3/4 in. (19.5 cm.) long

Purchased by the Norwegian ambassador to China from a collector between the 1920s and 1940s.

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Lot Essay

Jiang Rong (1919-2008) was one of the most prominent contemporary Yixing artists and was awarded the title of "China Arts and Crafts Master.” In 1956, the Jiangsu provincial government named her as the Jishu Fudao, or “technician teacher”, for Yixing pottery, which was regarded as the highest honour in the arts and crafts industry in China at the time. She worked in the naturalistic tradition and was the only woman among the Six Old Masters chosen to teach in the main factory when Yixing ware was revived in the 1950s.