Chinese Blue and White Brush Pot.

Decorated with five-petalled flowers, plum blosse, and floral motifs. The five petals of the flower represent one of the many ‘fives’ in Chinese symbolism including the five gods of prosperity; five good fortunes; five good luck gods. A brush pot (Chinese: ??; pinyin: bitong) is a container for holding the brushes used by scribes for Chinese calligraphy. Made in wood, stone, porcelain and bamboo, brush pots were mostly cylindrical and were often decorated with traditional symbols inscribed on their body.