A fine clair-de-lune-glazed washer, Mark and period of Kangxi

American Private Collection (by repute).

Brush washers were an essential part of the scholar's studio, permitting the erudite occupant to refresh his brush and elegantly express his ideas through ink. During the Qing dynasty, small porcelain objects for the scholar's table, including brush washers, waterpots, and amphora vases, were produced in two new glazes, 'peachbloom' and 'clair de lune'. Whilst brush washers are more commonly found than other forms, far fewer examples appear to survive in pale blue than in 'peachbloom'.

Washers of this elegant form and subtle coloration are an innovation of the Kangxi reign and display the great technical advances made at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen at the beginning of the Qing dynasty, which saw the creation of numerous monochrome glazes. The tian lan (sky blue) glaze is among the most striking products of the imperial kilns and was achieved by diminishing the amount of cobalt oxide in the glaze mix. Vessels covered in this delicate glaze are often very finely potted, an indication that they were probably made in the latter years of the Kangxi reign, as suggested by Suzanne G. Valenstein in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 241.

Three 'clair-de-lune' brush washers of this type from the Wiedener Collection, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., are illustrated in Decorative Arts, pt. II, Washington, 1998, pp 98 and 99; two in the Baur Collection, are published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, Geneva, vol. 3, 1973, pls A318 and A320; and a further example was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st November 1999, lot 341 and again in our London rooms, 12th July 2006, lot 153.