a good bamboo brushpot (bitong) Qing dynasty, 18th century

the narrow cylindrical vessel carved in relief on a reduced ground, depicting the hermit Lin Bu shouting at a crane as he sits at a rockwork table containing drinking vessels, scholarly objects and a vase of lotus flower, the crane perched atop a craggy bed of rocks, with two attendants preparing tea, surrounded by pine and plantain trees, immersed in an atmosphere of thick fog, apocryphal Zhu Sansong signature to a gatepost, hardwood mouth rim and base, wood of reddish-brown tone with deep patina

Walter E. Lutz, Arts of Asia, 'Bamboo Brushpots', September - October 1975, p. 33.

There are vertical age cracks, a prominent crack from the mouth approximately 3 inches long. Ink stains to the interior. The rim and base not original to brushpot.
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The hermit Lin Bu, also called Lin Hejing, lived during the Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127). An unmarried man, he spent his days planting plum trees and raising cranes, and in fact, it is believed that he took the plum blossoms as his wife, and the cranes as his children.

Compare a brushpot depicting the same narrative, dated to the Kangxi period, illustrated in Simon Kwan, Ming and Qing Bamboo, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 35.