清十八世紀 黃花梨「踈景」寒梅圖筆筒 《金農製》款 「壽」「門」印

of cylindrical form and supported on waisted foot resting on five short feet, the exterior deftly carved with gnarled branches bearing prunus buds and blossoms, boldly incised with an inscription reading shu jing followed by Jin Nong zhi followed by two seals reading shou and men respectively ('Gate to longevity'), the interior neatly partitioned into four sections, the wood patinated to a warm brown colour

雅典襍，台北

This brushpot is striking for its elegant design of flowering prunus, which follows the tradition of Chinese painting with the surface of the huanghuali treated as a horizontal handscroll. The carver has further enhanced the overall pictorial effect by skilfully manipulating his blade as he would his brush and successfully captured texture by incising lines of differing depths, as seen in the broad cuts that define the gnarled tree and the thinly engraved plum blossoms. The brushpot was an essential item for the scholar’s desk, offering not only a utilitarian vessel but also a source of inspiration for reflection through its carved subject.  As the first flower to bloom each year, the flowering prunus was a particularly favoured motif amongst scholars as it symbolised perseverance, purity and old age.

Born in Hangzhou, Jin Nong (1687-1763) moved to Yangzhou where he found extensive patronage and established himself as a talented poet, calligrapher and painter and a connoisseur of ancient bronzes and stone inscriptions. Identified as one of the ‘Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou’, a group of idiosyncratic artists that excelled at flower paintings in the spontaneous xieyi(picture idea) style, he is particularly noted for developing the ‘lacquer script’ (qishu), which evolved from inscriptions on Han dynasty (205 BC-220 AD) lacquer vessels made with a brush with the tip cut away. The handscroll painting ‘Prunus blossom’ signed by Jin, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Arts from the Scholar’s Studio, Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong, 1985, pl. 4, illustrates the close connection between his style of carving and painting. See also Jin's painting of the same subject, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in Wang Zhihai, Collection of Yangzhou Calligraphy and Painting, vol.I, Tianjin, 1996, p. 124