Carved bamboo brush holder with woman reading a letter decoration, Zhu Sansong mark, Ming dynasty, 17th century

Carved bamboo brush holder with woman reading a letter decoration, Zhu Sansong mark, Ming dynasty, 17th century

• Image Number: K1G000013N000000000PAC
• Dynasty: Ming dynasty
• Category: Carvings
• Function: Stationery
• Material: Plants/Bamboo/
• Description:
  The brush pot is used as a tool in the study. According to the article in the “Records of Long Things”, “Xiangzhu Kitool Palm is the best”. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, bamboo carvings have been used for display and entertainment. This piece of “Sketchy Sketch Penholder” is a relief sculpture of a lady in a high bun. It is Cui Yingying in the “Western Chamber”. She stands behind the screen and shows her shyness. Wutong trees are carved on the screen, with luxuriant branches and leaves. A bird stands on the branch. The words “three pines” are engraved in regular script in the lower right corner of the screen. Behind the screen, another beautiful lady, the matchmaker, hid her forefinger to peep at the young lady reading Jane. After the side screen, several cases were decorated with vase flowers, stove boxes, incense sticks, ancient zither, brush and inkstone, etc. This pattern originates from Chen Hongshou (1599-1652), a painter at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, who made the “peeping bamboo slips” and “reporting victory” prints of Mr. Zhang Shenzhi’s True North West Chamber Secret Script. Zhu Zhizheng, named Shuzi and Sansong, was the representative of bamboo carving in Wanli period. There are many “three loose” styles in the works handed down from generation to generation, but this one is the most famous. The ingenuity in composition, creating a painting like atmosphere, and striving for meticulous and complicated technical expression can be the ultimate in bamboo carving. (Quoted from Asia Adventures: The Legend of East West Communication in the 17th Century)