Chinese Brush Jar, 1st Quarter S. XX

This decorative brush jar or holder is made of a single bamboo wooden piece that has been emptied so it can store the painters utensils. Its outside is completely engraved by hand. This article was made in China in the first quarter of the 20th century so its quite old, being a wonderful vintage piece that has survived to our days in really good condition. The jar is big in size and boasts a stylized design and a nice carved decoration. The orange-brown color of the wood provides the piece with a great beauty that joins the fine hand-carved surface.The whole jar is decorated with traditional designs. The artist used the sunken-relief technique: the wood has been emptied in some places in order to create cavities with embossed motives depicting buildings, human figures and trees or plants. This carving technique generates nice light and shadow effects, and provides the article with lightness and depth. The scenes depicted are traditional in style, with many characters dressed in antique costumes performing different tasks between forests and temples.The hand-carved scenes are scattered among all the levels and they are all part of landscape of tall leafy trees. Among the trees trunks and tops we can see some big gaps, deeply carved in the wood, that act as windows showing us what is happening in the different places. All of them show male figures that talk, rest or work in the middle of the nature. The most remarkable scene takes place in a bamboo wood with high and slim vertical canes that make up a beautiful background. Just below this scene we can see a man in a small boat that rows over a rivers wavy waters.This brush holders delicate decoration turns it into a very special piece, perfect to embellish the desk of a drawer or a writer.Measurements: Width: 4.7 in/12 cm. Height: 11.8 in/30.5 cm.