The cylindrical sides finely painted in sapphire blue with a continuous scene of an official with attendants being presented with a jue, on a fenced terrace enclosed by plantain trees, pine, rocky mountains, and a river, the scene below a lightly incised band of scrollwork within double-line borders around the mouth rim, an additional incised double line above the foot, the lip unglazed, the glaze pooling to a pale blue; raised on a later fitted hardwood stand.
Note:
The scene in the present work is likely based on a woodblock illustration from one of the many printed books that were entering the market during the late Ming period. For other forms where an attendant is making an offering to an official surrounded by additional attendants and figures, see the vase, p. 220, no. Ill.2.51a,b, and the brush pot p. 224, Ill.2.53 illustrated in Theresa Canepa and Katherine Butler, "Leaping the Dragon Gate, The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth Century Porcelain, London, 2021.

For a slightly smaller 8 1/4-inch-high brush pot, see the example sold at Christie's, London, on May 18, 2007, lot 24. See also the 9-inch brush pot sold at Christie's, New York, September 18, 2003, lot 299. Both of those are slightly waisted examples, for a cylindrical example, like the present brush pot, but with slightly broader proportions, compare the 8 1/8 inch high brush pot sold at Christie's, London, June 11, 2004, lot 118.