Chinese Hand-Carved Bamboo Brush Pot. Depicts a warrior in the mountains. 

Size: 4 1/2 X 4 1/2 X 12 in. 

#3933 . 

A brush pot is a container for holding the brushes used by scribes for calligraphy. These are typically carved from bamboo or jade with ornate motifs symbolizing concepts such as longevity and honor. Antique examples are now valued highly, both for what they represent and sometimes for who owned and used them. Calligraphy brushes were generally kept in the brush pots but intermittently they were also used to stock rolled-up papers, particularly if taken on a journey. The brushes would be rinsed and stored in the pot with their handle down so that the bundles of hair would keep their shape and point. Bamboo curved brush pots were likely first produced in China pre-Confucianism, and after Neo-Confucianism was welcomed as the formal doctrine in Korea at the beginning of the Joseon Era the new intellectual class spent a significant amount of time writing calligraphy, leading to the production of brush pots there rather than simply importing them. Made predominantly in wood, stone, porcelain, and bamboo, brush pots were mostly cylindrical and were often decorated with traditional symbols inscribed on the outside, though sometimes on the inside as well. In 2012 a Chinese brush pot made of bamboo was sold for £360,000 by a Bristol-based charity after it was discovered that it was made between 1662 and 1722 by Gu Jue, an old master of the craft. The highest price ever fetched by a brush pot at auction was in 2019, when the Art Institute of Chicago sold a white jade "Imperial Procession" piece from the Qing Dynasty at Sotheby's in New York for $2,060,000.