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Brushpot
Late Ming dynasty, 15th-16th century
Carved bamboo root
Purchased with funds donated by Mr. and Mrs. Bruce M. Stevenson
81.69

Mastery of the complex Chinese writing system was not only a prerequisite for entry into the scholar-official class that ruled China, but an essential qualification for anyone who wished to be considered a gentleman. In a society dominated by concepts of Confucian propriety, calligraphy was a respected form of self-expression, and great care was lavished on anything related to it. As a result, inkstones, water droppers, and other desk accoutrements were often among a scholar’s most prized possessions, valued not only for their utility, but also as a means of displaying their owner’s taste and cultivation.

Certainly this carved bamboo brushpot reflects a highly developed sensibility on the part of the person who originally bought or commissioned it. Like many other scholar-officials of the late Ming dynasty, he seems to have combined a love for natural things—especially those taking some unusual or adventitious form—with a taste for refined craftsmanship and artifice. The brushpot is carved from the bottom-most sections of a length oftimber bamboo, which is a flattened oval in cross section and shows evidence of irregular growth in the scarlike divisions between the sections. A depiction of a grotto has been deeply carved into one of the two flattened sides. Surrounded by overarching pines, the grotto almost appears to be a natural cleft in the bamboo. Inside, a scholar sits writing at a table, with an inkstone beside him, while at the entrance a young attendant holds a crane, a symbol of Daoist reclusiveness and immortality.