Dimensions: 4" H x 4-7/8" Diam. Chinese Qing Dynasty period, Yongzheng pastel landscape pen holder. Delicately potted with slightly rounded sides rising from footed base toward flat opening, of a simply deep and wide vessel, cylindrical straight body straight opening, curved side, raised on flat foot base. All reserved hand painted ornamentations are rendered in clean white underglaze base color which contrast against the Wucai design color. Wucai or five-color shades and tones, brightly painted in Wucai design, Opaque colors around the exterior, between the filling motif decorated in colorful vivid sgraffito ground of uptala. The main body adorned with a mother and her child walking on the foot path beside the peace pavilion among the lush tree, rockwork hill, and Lishui water fall, all in salubrious mountain landscape. Many mountains in China are sacred, some to Daoist's, some to Buddhists and some to both. In folk religion each mountain has its own deity associated with it. The pictogram character for mountain sea represent an all encompassing phrase for the whole world shan Hai. Mountains represent the yang element in the landscape and as such connect to the governing yang element in China the Emperor. Mountain is one of the eight trigrams in Feng Shui and Yi Jing. Of these Taishan is considered the most important and stones from the mountain were often placed in towns across China as a lucky charm. The color is balanced, elegant and exquisite. This piece displays a subtle sheen as the light ricochets across the finely exterior, glazed smooth, brilliant with a moist appearance, the finishing meticulous.