A nanmu brushpot inscribed by Huang Zhen, Qing dynasty | 清 楠木隨形筆筒 《黃鎮書》款

Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection, Hong Kong, 1979-2010.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2010, lot 1712.

水松石山房收藏，香港，1979-2010年

香港蘇富比2010年4月8日，編號1712

Gerard Tsang and Hugh Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1986, cat. no. 24.

曾柱昭及莫士撝，《文玩萃珍》，香港東方陶瓷學會及香港大學馮平山博物館，香港，1986年，編號24

The poem on the base may be translated ibid., p. 60, as follows:

'On this frosted old tree trunk a distinction is to be made

between purple trunk and green leaves,

it has a heart to withstand the wind and the rain.

Bringing my qin I like to sweep clean the mossy rock at its roots.

I want to evoke autumn sounds,

but find myself just staring at the clouds.

This poem is for the Daoist Airuo,

written by Huang Zhen.’

followed by a seal reading Zichen. Brushpots made of a section of a tree trunk were favoured by scholars and the literati for their close link with nature. The poem refers to the noble nature of the withered old trunk that represents the wisdom and experience of old age.

The author notes that the interior base is interestingly lined with a layer of hard but still malleable material, probably with the purpose of adding weight and stability, and also serving as a cushion for objects deposited in the brush pot.

器底刻詩文：

老幹懸霜紫綠分，一心風雨半空開。

携琴欲掃苔根石，為寫秋聲寄白雲。

靄若道長黄鎮書

《子臣》印 

老根飽經歲月，見證天道，雕成隨形筆筒，為古代文人雅士所喜也。黄鎮借老樹瘤根，刻詩抒情，頌揚先輩的人生智慧及歷練。