There was originally a single-storey house with three rooms just like a writing brush holder with the shadows of the two pagodas reclining on its roof at sunset.

The 70 mostly useful objects, from the collection at Yale, include bronze ritual wine vessels and incense burners, porcelain water pots and vases, wooden brush holders, lacquer boxes, ceramics and calligraphy.

Eventually the brush wears small and thin enough that steady contact is no longer possible or it is no longer securely held in the brush holder, and so the brush must be replaced.

The visual standout is a brush holder carved from a single piece of bamboo, with patterns of concentric rings that produce in off-kilter, sumped-cake effect (Cotter).

But the visual star is another brush holder carved from a single piece of bamboo.

Interestingly, much of the furniture and objets d'art shown on the screen was displayed next door this week at Christie's showroom: lacquered straw boxes, large wooden brush holders and several pieces of furniture.

The writing materials in a scholar's private study, including elaborately carved brush holders made of stone or wood, were designed and arranged ritually to give an aesthetic appeal.

In 1923 brush holders were included in the product line.

Along with the brush holder and ink slab, the water dropper was the scholar's most important paraphernalia.