.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The pine, prunus and bamboo are collectively known as the ‘Three Friends of Winter’, as the pine and bamboo are evergreen, and the prunus is the first to bloom each year. Together they represent fortitude and uprightness in adversity, and also carry connotations of longevity. Placed on a scholar’s desk, the present brush pot would have reminded its owner of these traditional virtues.
A white jade brush pot carved with the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhonggui Yuqi Quanji (The Great Treasury of Chinese Jade), No. 6, Qing, Hebei, 1991, p. 196, figs. 279-280. Another slightly larger jade brush pot carved with the same motif in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Chang Li-tuan, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, pp. 168-69, no. 53. See, also, a related brush pot carved with a scholar among pines illustrated by C.C. Teng & Co., Jade Furnishings from the Scholar’s Studio of 18th Century, Taipei, 2001, pp. 40-41, no. 16.
A white jade brush pot carved with the ‘Three Friends of Winter’ in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhonggui Yuqi Quanji (The Great Treasury of Chinese Jade), No. 6, Qing, Hebei, 1991, p. 196, figs. 279-280. Another slightly larger jade brush pot carved with the same motif in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated by Chang Li-tuan, The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch’ing Court, Taipei, 1997, pp. 168-69, no. 53. See, also, a related brush pot carved with a scholar among pines illustrated by C.C. Teng & Co., Jade Furnishings from the Scholar’s Studio of 18th Century, Taipei, 2001, pp. 40-41, no. 16.