Carved Bamboo Brush-holder with Two Views of Females-gathering and Zhu Sansung’s Mark, 17th century, late Ming to early Qing dynasty-China Archive

Carved Bamboo Brush-holder with Two Views of Females-gathering and Zhu Sansung’s Mark, 17th century, late Ming to early Qing dynasty

Image Number: K1G000007N000000000PBE
Dynasty: Ming dynasty
Category: Carvings
Function: Stationery
Material: Plants/Bamboo/
Description:
The round pen pot is carved with bamboo. The carver uses rocks and pine trees to separate them into two scenes, one indoor and the other outdoor. The round window of the indoor scene is carved with the hollow openwork technique, and a pine tree grows out of the window. Four ladies with towering cloud buns stood behind the screen, pointed to the screen with their right hands, and looked back to talk with the woman holding the scroll of calligraphy and painting. The screen was carved with wutong. One woman holds Ruyi in her hand and enjoys the bottle lotus with the other woman. In the room, under the pine stone, three women are relaxing, one is playing flute on the futon, the other is playing on the stone, and the other is standing under the pine tree with a fan. The woman who plays the music raises her head and turns back. The words “Three Songs” in regular script are carved in shallow shade between the stone walls. Zhu Zhizheng, styled Uncle, and named Sansong, may have been born around the 38th (1559) year of Jiajing, but his death date was unknown. He was active during the Wanli period (1573-1619), and together with his grandfather Zhu He and father Zhu Ying, he was called “Jiading Sanzhu”. This makes bamboo carving a specialty of Jiading Yiyi. This bamboo carving brush pot has some characteristics of Zhu Zhizheng’s bamboo carving works, but it may be a pseudonymous work of later generations, and it is also a rare masterpiece among the numerous “Three Pines” entertaining works handed down from generation to generation.