Ming dynasty, 15th/16th century
The heavily potted washer is of compressed globular form with inturned rim. The outer wall is pierced with a design of chrysanthemun heads growing from leafy stems revealing the inner bowl.
The interior is set with a vertical tube which serves as a brush holder. It is covered inside and out with an oive-green glaze.
The shallow recessed base is partly glazed and shows the orange-burnt unglazed body.
Diameter 12 cm
It is rare to find brush washers with one or more attached tubes for holding a brush.
Longquan double-walled brush washers are not often found. Some early Ming Longquan celadon double walled warming bowls are known with comparable reticulated designs.
A more or less identical brush washer as the present example but with two tubes was sold at Sotheby's London, 13 December 1983 lot 225
Another waterpot with similar pierced decoration but without a nozzle from the George Eumorfopoulos Collection was sold at Sotheby's London, 15 April 1980, lot 190 and illustrated by R.L. Hobson, The Eumorfopoulos Collection: Catalogue of the Chinese, Corean and Persian Pottery and Porcelain, vol. 2, pl.XXXIX, no. B154
