A fine and very rare Chinese Ming dynasty 17th century Blanc de Chine 'Dehua' porcelain brush washer.
It comes with its tailor-made zitan wood stand, as well as its 18th century Japanese kiri-wood (paulownia) box made to fit both brush washer and stand. Interestingly when the box was made for it in Japan, as the inscription shows, the vessel was mis-attributed as being Korean and dating to the Koryo dynasty. The second inscription on the cover of the box refers to the Blue Cloud studio and this being a much-loved piece, as is demonstrated by the original zitan wood stand: only the very finest porcelain pieces would have had a tailor-made zitan wood stand, although over time the stand has shrunk just a little.
Diameter 25cm
The underside of the brush washer shows collection number C-32, this being from the private collection of Professor William Merrill "Bill" Enking (1913 - 1999) of Pasadena University where he taught Oriental Art History. This brush washer was purchased by Professor Enking immediately after the Second World War whilst he was stationed in Japan during his service with the US Navy, or during 1950 - 1952 when he lived in Japan, studying and teaching in Tokyo and Kyoto.
A very similar example is shown in 'Blanc de Chine' by P J Donnelly. Faber & Faber, 1969."