A LARGE INSCRIBED BAMBOO-ENGRAVED ZITAN BRUSHPOT QING DYNASTY, 18TH – 19TH CENTURY, THE DECORATION 19TH CENTURY – REPUBLICAN PERIOD

of cylindrical section, the base characteristically pierced and fitted with a wood plug, shallowly cut through the surface with slender bamboo shoots and leaves sprouting in various directions, with a poem incised in xingshu and signed Banqiao, followed by a carved seal impression reading Suonan weng hou (‘descendent of the old man whose dwelling faced the south’), carved with two further seals reading lao huashi (‘old paintings master’) and hanmoxuan zhuren (‘master of the brush and ink studio’)

This brushpot bears the apocryphal signature of the Qing painter, poet and calligrapher Zheng Xie (1693-1765), better known as Zhen Banqiao, and the apocryphal seal of the prominent collector and connoisseur Dai Zhi, who was active in the Daoguang period. It is likely that an anonymous artist carved the motif of bamboo in the style of Zheng Xie, and added the inscription and seals on a plain zitan brushpot. The poetic inscription may be translated as follows:

When a short-joined old stalk expands its roots underground, bamboo suddenly thrust up through the ground. However, once above ground not many bamboo soar up to the sky, do they? For whether they turn out to grow high or low is never certain.