Square Flower-Shaped Washer

This small brush washer was used in a scholar’s studio. The blue-green color of the vessel was made to look like ancient ritual jades; the artistic reference was a political statement for Confucian scholars yearning for the golden ages of the Chinese past, during a time when the Mongols were ruling the country. Guan ware is notable for the crackled pattern created when the thick glaze and the dark clay body of the ceramic cool at different rates. The term guan means “official” and refers to the Confucian scholar-officials at the imperial court who ran the political bureaucracy and favored this type of ceramic.