None of these pieces writes or serves: to rinse the brush, to rest it, to hold the water — eleven objects for gestures with no end of their own. On the scholar's table turned stage, porcelain pursues its least reasonable ambitions, and the brush rest, most useless of all, aims highest.
Brush washer (bǐ xǐ笔洗) with peach-bloom glaze (jiāng dòu hóng豇豆红), Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period (1662–1722), Jingdezhen porcelain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. 14.40.385. CC0.Brush washer with a so-called “clair de lune” glaze (tiān lán天藍), Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period (1662–1722), Jingdezhen porcelain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. 64.279.2. CC0.Seal-paste box (yìn ní hé印泥盒) decorated with the eight horses in underglaze cobalt blue, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Jingdezhen porcelain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. 29.149.69a, b. CC0.Brush pot (bǐ tǒng笔筒) decorated with King Wen and the scholar Jiang Taigong, incised and painted in underglaze cobalt blue, Ming dynasty, Chongzhen period (1628–1644), Jingdezhen porcelain. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. 79.2.366. CC0.Brush washer in porcelaneous Ru ware (rǔ yáo汝窯), Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), Qingliangsi site, Baofeng, Henan. The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. 1957.40. CC0.Brush rest (bǐ jià笔架) in Guan ware (guān yáo官窯), Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), Zhejiang. The most useless object on the desk, and the most ambitious. The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. 1957.42. CC0.Brush washer in the form of a lingzhi fungus (líng zhī靈芝), celadon glaze, Qing dynasty, Qianlong mark and reign (1736–1795), Jingdezhen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. 1964.225. CC0.Brush pot with pierced and incised peonies, Dehua porcelain (dé huà德化), Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Fujian. The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. 1964.180. CC0.Water pot (shuǐ chéng水丞) with peach-bloom glaze and ivory lid, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662–1722), Jingdezhen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, acc. 1942.672. CC0.Water dropper in the form of a squirrel (shuǐ dī水滴), porcelain, Song dynasty (960–1279). Fujian Museum, Fuzhou. Shared on Wikimedia Commons, public-domain dedication. CC0.Water dropper in porcelain, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). Xuchang City Museum, Henan. Shared on Wikimedia Commons, public-domain dedication. CC0.
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