Brush Rest, Base

This is the base for a lacquer carving of Li T'ieh-kuai - one of the eight Daoist immortals (Pa Hsien) - in a seated position. He is said to have become proficient in magic during his life on Earth and is frequently summoned before Laozi in the celestial regions. He is also frequently depicted as a beggar who assists the oppressed and needy and can often be identified by his characteristic gourd.

Lacquerware was typically produced in government-sponsored workshops, though this was not always the case. In times of economic prosperity, the commercial workshops of southern China, particularly the southeastern provinces of the Song and Yuan periods (13th-14th century) and the late Ming era (1368-1644), were innovative in their approaches to creating lacquer items. Lacquer items from the Qing palace workshops were, at first, carved by craftsmen capable of overcoming the difficulties of lacquer carving due to their experience carving bamboo and ivory. However, the rapid political and economic decline of the Qing Dynasty following the reign of Qianlong (1735-1796) resulted in the closing down of many palace workshops, and the lacquer items made afterwards were fewer and had diminished in quality.

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Dursum, Brian A. et al. China’s Last Empire: The Art and Culture of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911. Coral Gables: Lowe Art Museum, 2014.

Hutt, Julia. Understanding Far Eastern Art: A Complete Guide to the Arts of China, Japan and Korea - Ceramics, Sculpture, Painting, Prints, Lacquer, Textiles and Metalwork. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987.

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Watt, James C. Y., and Barbara Brennan Ford. East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.