Inkstick Rest with Patterns of Mottled Bamboo

The inkstick rest is designed as a couch made of mottled bamboo. Its green edges and feet are decorated with brown and yellow flecks, resembling the patterns of fresh mottled bamboo. The surface has a polychrome painting of a bird among flowers, while the reverse bears a red mark in seal script (zhuan shu), reading “Jiuwan Mountain Lodge.”
With a cunning shape and tender colors, the object provides a natural sense, and would have been an elegant item for the scholar’s table.