The finely potted bitong formed with slightly curved sides, the exterior painted in bold underglaze-blue depicting two large stylised shou characters, each character containing two large cartouches enclosing the calligraphic inscriptions of Su Dongpo's poem 'Ode to the Red Cliffs' and further adorned with seals, one of the seals reading 'Dragon West' and also signed 'Cloud Play' (Yun Wan), together with a cloth box Size:(14cm high) Qty: (1) Provenance:John R. Berwald Oriental Ceramics & Works Art, London, 18 April 1995; The Marsh Collection; Bonhams, The Marsh Collection, Art for the Literati, London, 3 November 2022, lot 43; Santos Collection 來源： 倫敦 John R Berwald東方陶瓷及工藝品，1995年4月18日 倫敦 邦瀚斯，2022年11月3日，43號拍品 Marsh舊藏 桑托斯收藏 Please note that this brushpot has been published and Illustrated in S. Marsh, Brushpots: A Collector's View, Hong Kong, 2020, pp.146-147 此筆筒著錄並刊載於《藏家眼中的筆筒》，作者S. Marsh，香港，2020年出版，見第146-147頁。 Notes: During his first exile to Huangzhou, imposed for his opposition to reformist policies at court, the Song dynasty writer Su Dongpo (1037–1101) passed the site traditionally identified with the naval battle of the Red Cliffs (AD 208). On this occasion he composed his two celebrated Red Cliff poems, which simultaneously memorialize the valor of the historical protagonists and articulate his own meditations on nostalgia, transience, and the inexorable passage of history. These poems subsequently assumed a canonical status within the Chinese literary tradition and have remained an enduring point of reference for poets and artists alike. See R. Egan, Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi, Cambridge, MA, 1994, pp. 221–228. The present lot incorporates extracts from Su’s poems, the inscription reading as follows: 五百年前續此遊，水光依舊接天浮，徘徊今夜東山月，恍惚當年王戌秋。 雲玩 'Continuing the journey from five hundred years ago, the scenery of old with water stretching to the horizon, tonight the moon lingers by the Eastern Mountain, as if it were the same autumn moon that shone on the battle. Yun Wan.' 有客得魚臨赤壁，無人載酒出黃州，吟成一浦千山寂， 孤鶴橫江涼小舟。 'A visitor arrives at the Red Cliff with freshly caught fish, yet no one brought wine from Huangzhou, our poetry contrasts the silence that fills the riverbank and the thousand mountains a lonely crane crosses the river and passes over our boat.'