276 - BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN BRUSH POT CHONG ZHEN PERIOD CHINA

BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN BRUSH POT CHONG ZHEN PERIOD CHINA Dimensions: Height 22 cm Wide 22 cm Depth 22 cm Weight: 3700 grams A cylindrical blue-and-white porcelain brush pot decorated with a continuous figural scene. Slender trees, rocky forms and figures in a landscape are rendered in fluid cobalt-blue lines and washes, their changing density creating movement across the white ground. The straight sides and open mouth give the vessel a clear, restrained profile, while the pictorial decoration invites the viewer to turn it and follow the scene around the circumference. Brush pots occupied an important place on the Chinese scholar's desk, combining the practical storage of writing brushes with the pleasures of painting, calligraphy and literary imagery. Narrative scenes were particularly suited to their uninterrupted cylindrical walls.