A Chinese Bamboo Brush Pot

A nineteenth century carved bamboo brush pot, the outer surfaces with carved decoration depicting figures and pagodas in a mountainous landscape.

This brush pot would have been an essential item at any traditional Chinese scholars’ desk; to complete it, the intellectual would have also laid out an ink stone, an ink cake, a brush rest and, of course, a brush. This densely carved example depicts a detailed mountainscape. The colour of the bamboo varies in places, emphasising the three dimensional effect of the carving and stressing the texture of the elements.