Bamboo rhizome washer of irregular lobed shape, finely carved with openwork overhanging pine branches on opposing sides, one extending into the interior, each with gnarled, knotted trunks and clusters of fine pine needles. The branches also extend to the base of the vessel which has been carved to reveal irregularly shaped, oval patterns formed from cross sections of the root nodules. The vessel has an attractive patina, the colour ranging from a dark brown to a rich golden tone on the underside.
Length: 11.8cm
Provenance:
Feng Wen Tang collection, Hong Kong.
Exhibited:
London, 2019, Eskenazi Limited.
Published:
Christie’s, Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Ceramics, Jades and Works of Art, 18 and 19 March 1991, number 313.
Christie’s, Hong Kong, The Feng Wen Tang Collection of Bamboo Carvings and Furniture, 3 June 2015, number 2804.
Eskenazi Limited, Room for study: fifty scholars’ objects, London 2019, number 40.
Similar examples:
Ip Yee and Laurence C. S. Tam, Chinese Bamboo Carving, part 1, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, page 74, number 4, for four water containers, two carved with pine branches; and part 2, pages 302 - 304, numbers 112 and 114.
Shanghai Museum, Literati Spirit, Art of Chinese Bamboo Carving, Shanghai, 2012, number 34, for an example carved by Deng Fujia, dated to the early Qing dynasty, in the Shanghai Museum.
Zhao Shengtu ed., Zhuyuan jiangxin, Ming Qing Jiading zhuke jingpin, (Masterpieces of Jiading Bamboo Carvings of the Ming and Qing Dynasties), Shanghai, 2018, pages 10 - 11.
The evergreen pine tree, as a recurring motif in Chinese paintings and decorative arts, is closely associated with longevity. As it does not die in winter, it also symbolizes endurance in the face of adversity. When grouped with bamboo and prunus, the three are referred to as the ‘Three Friends of Winter’, together representing endurance, perseverance and longevity, all the qualities associated with or ascribed to a literati scholar. On the present vessel, the medium of bamboo is skilfully used to depict another plant of the Three Friends group, a gnarled pine tree, and the irregular patterns formed by root nodules on the base simulate the knotty trunk of a pine. Similar bamboo brush washers decorated with branches of prunus may also be found and it is possible they were used in sets, together representing the Three Friends.1
1 National Palace Museum, Masterpieces of Chinese Miniature Crafts in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1971, numbers 3 and 4, for two bamboo washers in the collection of the National Palace Museum, one carved with branches of a pine tree and the other carved with prunus branches.