BRUSH WASHER OR LIBATION CUP
Creator(s): Unknown
On view in: Pavilion Hallway
About this object
Carved from light green jade with russet skin, this brush washer or libation cup is in the shape of a peach resting on openwork branches that also serves as its handle. The vessel is decorated on its sides with a lotus flower and bud (he, or complete union) on one side and lingzhi (polyporous lucida, or fungus of immortality) on the other side; its handle is terminates in a lotus flower and peach. Likely a brush washer, used on the scholar's desk to hold water for cleaning ink from brushes, the decorations of lotus flowers and bud (sea rose or lian-hua or he, symbolic of purity), lingzhi (fungus of immortality), and peach (tao, symbolic of longevity) represent a rebus wishing for a complete union of purity and longevity.
- Object name:
- BRUSH WASHER OR LIBATION CUP
- Made from:
- Jade
- Made in:
- China
- Date made:
- 19th c.
- Size:
- 5.7 × 13.3 cm (2 1/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
Detailed information for this item
- Catalog number:
- 62.32
- Class:
- HARDSTONE
- Signature marks:
- Credit line:
- Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973