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Lot Essay
The brushwasher is described as of 'gong-shape' or tangluo xi, as it has heavily compressed sides.
This washer belongs to an exclusive group of eight vessel shapes that are embellished in this extremely desirable peachbloom glaze . Known as the ba da ma or 'Eight Great Numbers'. The sets were especially devised in these classic forms to serve as requisite appointments for the Emperor's writing table. Thus the character 'wen' appearing on the base, a contraction of 'wen ju', a term describing the items on a scholar's desk, is highly appropriate for a brushwasher.
Similar brushwashers are illustrated by S. Jenyns in Later Chinese Porcelain, pl. 7, fig. 1; by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. III, Geneva, 1972, nos. A 306, A 309; in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, no. 27.
This washer belongs to an exclusive group of eight vessel shapes that are embellished in this extremely desirable peachbloom glaze . Known as the ba da ma or 'Eight Great Numbers'. The sets were especially devised in these classic forms to serve as requisite appointments for the Emperor's writing table. Thus the character 'wen' appearing on the base, a contraction of 'wen ju', a term describing the items on a scholar's desk, is highly appropriate for a brushwasher.
Similar brushwashers are illustrated by S. Jenyns in Later Chinese Porcelain, pl. 7, fig. 1; by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. III, Geneva, 1972, nos. A 306, A 309; in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, no. 27.