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Lot Essay
A small group of these blue and white brushrests in mountain peak form are known in collections. Each of these brushrests are inscribed in cursive Arabic script within a lozenge on each of the facing sides. Each lozenge has been deciphered to contain a single-word in the Persian language with diacritical points and symbols of short vowels: one side reading khamah, meaning 'pen', and the other side, dan, literally meaning 'that which holds anything'. When the two words are read together they form khamadan or 'pen holder'. For a further reading see J. Harrison Hall, Ming Ceramics, The British Museum Press, 2001, p. 192-199; where the British Museum example, which was originally bought in Beijing before its publication by Sir A. W. Franks in 1876, is illustrated, ibid., no. 8:3.
It appears that there are subtle differences in these brushrests in that one group, such as with the current example, is designed with four additional solid dots on the cardinal points of the lozenge surrounding the Arabic text. For two other examples with the additional dots: the first in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, included in the 1949 exhibition, An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986, p. 79, no. 99; and the other from the Frederick M. Meyer Collection, sold at Christie's London, 24 June 1974, lot 102, and sold again at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 23 May 1978, lot 38, and now in the Hong Kong Musuem of Art. Brushrests without the circles within the lozenge include the example in the British Museum mentioned above; in the Percival David Foundation, now at the British Museum, illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, 1994, p. 29, no. 47, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated, op. cit., 1986, p. 70, no. 98.
It appears that there are subtle differences in these brushrests in that one group, such as with the current example, is designed with four additional solid dots on the cardinal points of the lozenge surrounding the Arabic text. For two other examples with the additional dots: the first in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, included in the 1949 exhibition, An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986, p. 79, no. 99; and the other from the Frederick M. Meyer Collection, sold at Christie's London, 24 June 1974, lot 102, and sold again at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 23 May 1978, lot 38, and now in the Hong Kong Musuem of Art. Brushrests without the circles within the lozenge include the example in the British Museum mentioned above; in the Percival David Foundation, now at the British Museum, illustrated by R. Scott and R. Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, 1994, p. 29, no. 47, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated, op. cit., 1986, p. 70, no. 98.