KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

This brushwasher is one of the eight classic shapes made for the writing table, ba da ma, or 'Eight Great Numbers'. The peachbloom glaze was reserved almost exclusively for these wares. Two complete assembled sets are in museum collections: one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, rev. ed. illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, rev. ed. 1989, p. 237, and another previously in the collection of the Tsui Museum, Hong Kong, later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3 November 1996, lot 557, and now in the Baur Collection, Geneva, illustrated by J. Ayers, 'The 'Peachbloom' Wares of the Kangxi period (1662-1722)', T.O.C.S., 1999-2000, vol. 64, pp. 31-50.