WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE RECTANGLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1620)

Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, where this brush rest once resided, is the seat of the earls and dukes of Atholl, an historic Scottish family whose noble title dates back to the mid-15^th century when John Stewart (c. 1440-1512) was christened 1^st Earl of Atholl circa 1457. (Fig. 1) Queen Anne bestowed the title of Duke of Atholl upon John Murray, 2^nd Marquess of Atholl, whom she had appointed to the prestigious role of Keeper of the Privy Seal in Scotland the previous year. Building began on the oldest part of the castle, Comyn’s Tower, in 1259, which still stands to this day.

The dragons depicted on this rare brush rest form three tall peaks, and take the shape of the Chinese character for ‘mountain’ (shan). The slightly curved form of the present brush rest is extremely rare and only three others of this shape appear to have been recorded. A crescent-form example in the British Museum, London, is illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall in Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 355, no. 11:155. Another in the Tsui Art Foundation was included in the Min Chiu Society of Hong Kong exhibition Joined Colors, Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain, Special Exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., 31 January-28 November 1993, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 107, no. 35, and subsequently sold at The Jingguantang Collection, Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 574. A third example from the Manno Art Museum was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 October 2002, lot 536. (Fig. 2)