A rare blue and white drum-form brush and ink stand. Ming dynasty, mid-16th century. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2012

The top with three circular and one rectangular apertures separated by scenes of scholars surrounding a circular biscuit grinding area within a glazed circular well, with a frieze of boys riding water buffalos on the exterior between decorative bands on the raised borders, the base with a four-character mark, fu shou kan ning (fortune, longevity, health, peace) within a double circle; 5¼ in. (13.3 cm.) diam. Estimate $10,000 - $15,000

明十六世紀中期 青花牧牛圖四孔筆插

Provenance: Acquired at auction in London in the 1980s.

Notes: The late Ming scholar Wen Zhenheng records in his Changwu Ji (Notes on Superfluous Things) that drum-shaped brush pots with holes were made to hold ink sticks and brushes. It has also been suggested by P.F. Ferguson, Cobalt Treasures, The Robert Murray Bell and Ann Walker Bell Collection of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, 2003, regarding a stand of this type, no. 31, p. 37, that the circular holes might have held either upright brushes or pots of paint, while the rectangular aperture might have been fitted with a porcelain holder for the ink stick. Other similar stands with various motifs have been published including: two in the British Museum illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 229, no. 9:31 with carp and no. 9:32 with figures in a landscape; one with a lotus pond scene in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 35 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 114; and one with phoenixes between decorative borders by G. Tsang and H. Moss, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong 1986, pp. 226-7, no. 212. None of the published examples has a central grinding surface.  

Christie's. Auspicious Treasures for Scholars and Emperors: Selections from the Robert H. Blumenfield Collection 22 March 2012. New York, Rockefeller Plaza