JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)

While a number of dishes with this design are known, brushwashers from this reign period are very rare. A blue and white Jiajing brushwasher of similar size, shape and decoration to the Falk example is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, and illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Blue-and-White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book V, Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 62-3, pl. 21; another is illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, Part I, no. 41. This design can also be seen on an earlier Yongle prototype such as the brushwasher decorated with dragon and phoenix roundels offered as the present sale, lot 3310. Compare also a Xuande-marked example in the collection of Peter Boode, illustrated in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935-6, no. 1468. The 'fish in water pond theme' appears to be a popular motif in underglaze blue during the Jiajing reign as can be seen from two slightly different examples of dishes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Commerical Press Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 138-9, nos. 127-8, which in turn copied dishes of the Xuande reign, like the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in volume (I) of the same series, p. 144, no. 136, and the example, which is very close to the Falk brushwasher, excavated from the site of the imperial kiln at Jingdezhen in 1993 and illustrated in Jingdezhen chutu Yuan Ming guanyao ciqi, Beijing, 1999, p. 198, no. 160.

Fish have been a favourite motif for Chinese ceramic decorators for centuries because the word for fish (yu) is a homonym for the word for abundance or plenty. The particular design on the Falk brushwasher, however, provides an additional, more complex rebus since the fish depicted are intended to represent a mullet, sole, bream and perch. The names for these fish in Chinese are pronounced qing, bai, lian and gui, which combine to sound like the phrase qingbai lianjie, meaning 'of good descent, modest and honorable'. Thus, if presented as a gift, such a brushwasher would pay a most gracious compliment to the recipient. Fish motifs were also popular among jars of the Jiajing period, such as the magnificent blue and white example sold at Christie's London, 11 July 2006, lot 1111.