A carved bamboo ‘Qiao Sisters’ brushpot, Signed Yutian Huashi

Acquired by an award-winning calligraphy master in Hong Kong, March 2012.

The present brushpot depicts the legendary Qiao Sisters around a zither. The sisters became known for their beauty and their association with two famous war heroes. Daughters of the official Qiao Xuan (109-83) of the late Han dynasty, one daughter married the warlord Sun Ce, and the other Sun’s close friend, General Zhou Yu.

While a bamboo carver by the name of Yutian Huashi (lit. ‘Flower Master of the Jade Field’) has yet to be identified, this moniker and the accompanying poetic inscription do appear in a painting attributed to the Qing artist Feng Ji, similarly depicting two women of rounded complexion and flowing robes, preserved as part of a set of four in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. 贈畫000850).