Wang Yinchun

A straight wall and a loop above the lid#

The cylindrical pot C81.279 has an almost vertical body wall, a rounded shoulder and a loop-shaped lid knob. The spout and rear handle interrupt the plain outline without hiding it. The Hong Kong catalogue dates it to the early twentieth century and records height 11.4 cm and width 9.8 cm. Those are this object’s measurements, not a size rule for Wang Yinchun’s work.

Compare this outline with the square-bodied example in the next section. The catalogue’s item 76 is on printed p. 123 / PDF 129; its width is not defined more precisely, and no capacity is supplied. [1]

A square body that swells between the corners#

C81.276, catalogue item 77, has bulging sides, softened corners and a lid that continues the square outline. Look at where the broad front turns towards the handle: the change from plane to curve is more useful here than a simple label such as “square”. The catalogue again gives an early-twentieth-century date, with height 9 cm and width 11 cm, on printed p. 124 / PDF 130. [1]

The museum’s 1996 newsletter shows a square pot with matching dimensions, facing the other way. It likely republishes this specimen; because its caption supplies no accession, it is not counted as a third documented pot. See printed pp. 50–51 / PDF 27. [2]

Two name readings, without an invented location#

Both catalogue entries reproduce detached seal details and identify 王寅春 and 寅春: the full name Wang Yinchun and the shorter Yinchun. Their position on the printed page does not establish where they sit on either vessel. These plates therefore do not, by themselves, justify assigning one to the base and the other to the lid. [1]

Xu Xiutang’s discussion includes work after older models; its next page illustrates a half-chrysanthemum pot and a bulging square pot. The latter has no accession in that publication and should not automatically be counted as another specimen. These comparisons show why a name, an object and a catalogue attribution must be kept together rather than used as a general authenticity test. [3]

What can be said about the dates#

The sources disagree on the death year. Xu Xiutang’s account of Wang Yinchun’s life begins with 1898–1976 on printed p. 188 / PDF 219; the museum newsletter prints 1898–1977 on printed p. 51 / PDF 27. This page retains the disagreement and uses “twentieth-century Yixing potter” rather than choosing one death year. [3] [2]

The objects’ catalogue dates and the maker’s life dates are different claims. Neither the repeated seal readings nor the newsletter’s reappearance of a pot resolves the biographical conflict.

Related#

• Compare the catalogued full-name and short-name seals
• Read the separate Yangxian Xiyinshi Wang mark