The form of this brushwasher imitates the Song original which is itself derived from contemporaneous silverware. Whereas the Song brushwashers with a junyao glaze were fired on three spurs, the marks of which can be seen on the glazed bases, the present example has been fired on the upper rim to allow the foot rim and countersunk base to be entirely covered with glaze. Instead of leaving an unglazed mouth rim, the area of the rim has subsequently been covered with a pale enamel to match the glaze colour. Song dynasty Ding ware examples of this shape were also fired on the mouthrim.

A Qianlong-marked fenqing (powder-blue) glazed brushwasher of the same size but with a biscuit mouthrim, in the National Palace Museum, was included in Qing Kang Yong Qian Mingci Tezhan, A Special Exhibition of Qing Dynasty: Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong Ceramics, 1986, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 58. Compare with the Northern Song dynasty dingyao prototype with an unglazed mouthrim, in the National Palace Museum, illustrated in Dingyao Baici Tezhan Tulu, A Special Exhibition Catalogue of Ding Ware White Porcelain, 1987, no. 25. The Song example has comparatively smaller horizontal flange and handle.

Metalwork vessels from which the ceramic examples take their form have been published, such as the two cups illustrated by V. Smirnov, L'Argenterie Orientale, St. Petersburg 1909, pl. CIV, no. 229 and pl. CVI, no. 233, each with a large bracket-shaped flange but lacking the ring below, both discovered in Central Asia and now in the Hermitage Museum.

(US$230,000-280,000)