AN INSCRIBED ROOTWOOD BRUSH HOLDER

QING DYNASTY (1644-1911)

HEIGHT: 17.3CM

The brush holder is of irregular contorted form, its twisted body is accentuated with burls and crevasses. The reverse is carved with a long inscription in running script followed by two square seals reading Songxue 松雪 (Pine snow). The wood is patinated to a warm caramel-brown tone. The brush holder is mounted with a hardwood rim and stand resting on five feet. The wood cover of the box is engraved with a further apocryphal inscription attributed to Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254-1322).

The long inscription on the brush holder reads

此蟠根之所成，而能虛其中欲為文几所故，而令「管城子」 聚族而居間□□□動其温足以究。

“The way this twisted root is formed allows its centre to be hollowed out so it can be used for the scholar’s desk, so one may command the ‘Baron of Bamboo City’ to gather his clan to dwell therein… moved by its warmth, it is well worth examining.

Guanchengzi 管城子 (“Baron of Bamboo Tube City”) is a name for the brush pen 毛筆 , which originated from an essay by Han Yu 韓愈 (768-824) entitled Mao Ying zhuan 毛穎傳 (Biography of Mao Ying). The Baron of Bamboo Tube City also puns on maoying 毛穎 (hair tip), which is a personification of the tip of the writing brush. See Quan Tangwen 管城子傳 (Complete Prose of the Tang), Beijing, 1983, 567:11b-13a

The two square seals which follows the inscription, reading Songxue 松雪 (Pine snow), was a sobriquet of the infamous Yuan-dynasty poet Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254-1322)

This apocryphal attribution is echoed by another inscription on the cover of the wood box, reading:

趙孟頫親鐫蟠梘筆海神品 “Twisted Bamboo Root Brush Pot Engraved by Zhao Mengfu himself in person—Divine Class”

PROVENANCE

Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat