A LARGE WELL-CARVED BAMBOO BRUSHPOT, BITONG

18TH CENTURY

Details

A LARGE WELL-CARVED BAMBOO BRUSHPOT, BITONG
18th century
Finely carved in deep relief with a continuous scene of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the scholars depicted playing the qin, reading, conversing and drinking wine which is prepared and served by various attendants, the outermost bamboo canes undercut to stand free of the background, later inscribed with the signature of Sansong
6 5/8in. (16.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

The decorative theme, The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, is based on a group of famous scholars in the 3rd century AD who reputedly met frequently in a bamboo grove to drink wine and discuss literature. It was a popular design motif in the decorative arts in China, and was used to good advantage on bamboo where the material could be successfully undercut, as on the present brushpot, and on another of similar design and size included in the exhibition, Possessing the Past; Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996, p. 466, pl. 271.

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