Hardwood brushpot

A hardwood brushpot, carved from a length of natural tree trunk.  The outside is mostly left in its natural state, showing knots and swirling patterns, and with some areas where the wood might have grown around inclusions such as stones. 

A separate piece of wood was inserted to form the base.

•  Cups, brush pots and other vessels made for use on the scholar’s table were sometimes fashioned out of natural sections of tree trunk, including the bark, simply hollowed out to form the vessel. This use of natural, virtually unaltered materials, provided a reference to nature that would have been much appreciated by members of the literati class.  Moss and Tsang illustrate a similar, larger brushpot in nanmu (cedar).1

1. Tsang, G. and Moss, H. Arts from the Scholar’s Studio, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 1986, no. 24, pp. 60-1