A LARGE INSCRIBED BAMBOO-ROOT BRUSHPOT QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY, SIGNED ZHONGQIAN

the irregularly shaped body conforming with the natural form of the root, the exterior decorated with raised nodes and textured burls, carved in low relief with gnarled bamboo shoots issuing clusters of long leaves alongside a poetical inscription in cursive script, the smooth patina of a warm golden-brown colour

Nicholas Grindley Ltd., London.

Another bamboo-root brushpot similarly carved in the form of an aged tree trunk, from the Hong Kong Museum of Art, is illustrated by Ip Yee and Laurence C. S. Tam, Chinese Bamboo Carving, Part II, Hong Kong, 1982, pl. 15. See also a slender cylindrical example in the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum, signed by Pan Xifeng, illustrated in Literati Spirit. Art of Chinese Bamboo Carving, Shanghai, 2001, cat. no. 81. For another inscribed brushpot with similar calligraphy freely carved within the natural parameters of the bamboo joints, see the example from the Walter and Mona Lutz collection, illustrated by Walter Lutz, 'Bamboo Brushpots', Arts of Asia, September - October 1975, p. 31, and sold in our New York rooms, 18th March 2008, lot 42. Compare also an inscribed bamboo root brushpot sold in these rooms, 7th April 2014, lot 3026.