A Chinese Brush Rest Decorated With Green And Yellow Enamels On The Biscuit. Kangxi Period

Of rectangular box-shaped, with three openings on the top for holding brushes. The top surface is also pierced with three openwork cash-shaped designs above a hallow space.

China,

Kangxi period (1662-1722)

Two very similar brush rests are illustrated by Luisa Vinhais and Jorge Welsh inBiscuit: Refined ChineseFamille VerteWares, Jorge Welsh Books, London and Lisbon, 2012, pp. 120-123, nos. 28-29.

Brush rests were necessary items for writing as a temporary holder for brushes while they were in use upon the scholars’s desk. This brush rest would have been used in conjunction with other items essential to the Chinese scholar, such as ink, paper and brushes. Coin motifs were popularly used in Chinese decorative arts, symbolising prosperity and fortune. Swastikas are good luck symbols associated with Buddhism. The Chinese word for swatiska is “wan”, a homophone for “ten thousand” or “infinite”