Brush Holder

The brush pot is painted in ink with a scene of a twisting plum branch growing above and behind a craggy and precariously-tilted rock. A poem, presumably written by the artist who painted the pot, fills the remaining space. A six-character mark written on the bottom indicates that the pot was produced during the Guangxu period at the end of the Qing dynasty:

金吉金寫菖蒲，拳石曰石為嫁蒲。余謂既嫁蒲家郎，非梅不得也。余亦寫菖蒲拳石，表綴梅華 一枝。戊午胡公壽記于海上精舍。[印]：公壽

Jin Jijin [Jin Nong, 1687-1764] painted the calamus, mentioning [in the inscription] the [metaphorical] marriage of a lump of rock to the calamus. In my opinion, for marrying the young man of the calamus family, the plum is indispensable. I paint calamus and rocks, too, to set off the plum branch. In the wuwu year [1858] Hu Gongshou (1823-1886) records this in his studio in Shanghai. [seal]: Gongshou 大清光緒年製
Made in the Guangxu reign era [1875-1908] of the Great Qing dynasty.