Brush Washer with Dragons (1426–35): Art, History and Details

Brush Washer with Dragons (1426–35) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The attractive tonal range found in the painted decoration, resulting from the irregular size of cobalt bits in the pigment, and the pocked glaze surface identify this stunning brush washer as a classic Xuande period piece despite the absence of a reign mark.

Object facts

• Title: Brush Washer with Dragons
• Date: 1426–35
• Culture: China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen, Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Xuande reign (1426-35)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: porcelain with underglaze blue decoration
• Dimensions: Diameter: 18 cm (7 1/16 in.); Overall: 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: China - Ming Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.166

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Ming Blue-and-White: An Exhibition of Blue-Decorated Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty. Philadelphia, PA: [Museum of Art], 1949.
• Neils, Jenifer. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.
• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review: Selections 1989.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77, no. 2 (February 1990): 38–78.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.