A carved bamboo 'Wang Zhi' brushpot (Bitong), 17th century

Collection of Walter (d. 2003) and Mona Lutz.

Sotheby's New York, 18th March 2008, lot 43.

Selections from the Lutz Bamboo Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, 1979, cat. no. 41.

Walter E. Lutz, 'Bamboo Brushpots', Arts of Asia, September - October 1975, pp 26-27.

Walter E. Lutz, in his 1975 interview with Arts of Asia, describes this brushpot as one of the highlights of his collection. The caption to the illustration states that the 'fine patina is a result of smoke and handling'.

The present brushpot recounts the Jin dynasty tale of Wang Zhi and the two immortals: Wang, the woodcutter, happened upon two elderly men in the mountains playing weiqi one day and they invited him to watch, providing him with food and drink. When Wang left and returned home, he discovered that hundreds of years had passed. He subsequently returned to the mountain and attained enlightenment.

Compare a similar brushpot illustrated in Simon Kwan, Ming and Qing Bamboo, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 21.