A WELL-CARVED BAMBOO BRUSH POT

18TH CENTURY

Details

A WELL-CARVED BAMBOO BRUSH POT
18TH CENTURY
Finely carved in high relief and undercut with 'The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove', the figures shown at various pursuits, one playing the qin while another sits nearby with a lu qin or pipa on the ground in front of him, another is seen in a reclining position behind the bamboo as he studies a scroll, a group of three drinks wine in the foreground, and the seventh scholar is shown arriving with his attendant who carries a shovel and a bundle of scrolls, groups of servants are also shown heating and serving the wine and one is shown washing an inkstone in the stream
5 7/8 in. (15 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in New York in 1983.

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Lot Essay

The theme '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 to discuss art and 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 brush pot, 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. See, also, the similar brush pot from the Personal Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Hawthorn, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3 December 2008, Lot 2313.

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