Celadon glazed brush washer, Qing dynasty

A small brush washer, the straight sides moulded with a row of circular studs beneath a protruding rim, under an even celadon glaze, with a four-character Qianlong mark in underglaze blue to the base.

The brush washer is one of the four treasures of the scholar’s studio and, for collectors, the most approachable of them: small, functional, made in enormous variety, and priced within reach. The moulded studs are a Ming and Qing decorative convention borrowed from metalwork.

Qing celadon in context

The Qing kilns at Jingdezhen revived the Song celadon glazes with a technical polish the Song never had. The British Museum describes Qing celadon glazes as “generally glossy with tiny bubbles”, over the fine white Jingdezhen body rather than the grey stoneware of Longquan, and the Metropolitan Museum notes that eighteenth-century celadons “often exhibit exceptional delicacy and finesse”. The colour comes, as it always did, from a small amount of iron oxide fired in a reducing atmosphere.

The brush washer is a scholar’s object, made to rinse the brush during writing or painting, and the Qing produced them in every glaze from peachbloom to celadon. This washer carries a four-character Qianlong mark in underglaze blue, and marks are a point to watch here: the British Museum notes that most Yongzheng and Qianlong celadons in Song taste carry six-character seal marks, though a number are unmarked — so an unmarked Qing celadon is not thereby suspect, and a four-character mark in regular script, less common than the six-character seal mark, is weighed as one indicator among several rather than as proof, which is why the mark reading is given as uncertain.

Read more: the scholar’s studio and celadon and Longquan.