QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

The carrier functions similarly to the fude-maki square bamboo mats still widely used in Japan for wrapping ink brushes. Such scholarly objects are remnants of ancient bamboo covers used by the Chinese to envelop their books or juan in bundles when stored away, and can be historically traced back to the Tang through Song dynasties, see a line-drawing representation included by Robert H. Van Gulik, Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur, Rome, 1958, p. 220.