The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 1, 2023

Brush Washer

汝瓷筆洗盤

late 1000s–1127

China, Henan Province, Baofeng, Qingliangsi, Northern Song dynasty

(960-1127)

Porcelaneous stoneware, Ru ware

Diameter: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.); Overall: 3.8 cm (1 1/2 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1957.40

Location

238 Chinese Ceramics

Fun Fact

The little black spot in the glaze inside the dish is one of the slight imperfections characteristic of genuine Ru ware.

Description

Ru ware is the rarest and most celebrated of all Chinese imperial wares. It was made for the late Northern Song court for a very short time and was therefore extremely rare and precious. Simplicity and refined elegance are Ru ware's hallmarks. Its graceful shape, soft luster, and subtle color variation of the glaze interact in perfect unity. Other physical characteristics include an ash-grey body, soft greyblue glaze with a fine crackle, as well as small sesame-seed spur marks on the base.

Provenance
Men-chu Wang, Beijing, China. Seller's No. 18
?–1957
(Frank Caro [1904–1980], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1957–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 843 archive.org
Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964. Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 36, p. 340
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 256 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 256 archive.org
Valenstein, Suzanne G. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. Reproduced: p. 75, fig. 30
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 338 archive.org
Tichane, Robert. Those Celadon Blues. Painted Post, NY: New York State Institute for Glaze Research, 1978. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 3.14, p. 27.
Kleinhenz, Henry J. "Porcelains for Imperial Use: The Sung Dynasty." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65, no. 4 (1978): 135–150h. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 140, fig. 6, a www.jstor.org
Ball, Victoria Kloss. Architecture and Interior Design. New York: Wiley, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 5.62, p. 204
Lee, Sherman E. A History of Far Eastern Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982. Mentioned: p. 369; Reproduced: p. 340, color pl. 36
Neils, Jenifer. The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 106, p. 102
Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院 . Hai wai yi zhen: taoci [海外遺珎. 陶瓷 = Chinese art in overseas collections, pottery & porcelain]. Zhonghua min guo Taibei Shi Shilin qu 中華民國台北市士林區: Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan, 1986. Reproduced: pl. 102, p. 102
Mowry, Robert D. "Koryo Celadons." Orientations vol. 17, no. 5 (May 1986), pp. 24–39. Reproduced: fig. 11, p. 32
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 54–55
Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." Orientations vol. 40, no. 5 (2009). Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 32, fig. 6
Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 90–91
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 98–99
Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33
Giuffrida, Noelle. Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018. Reproduced: p. 123, fig. 70
Exhibition history

The World of Ceramics - Masterpieces from The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 30-September 5, 1982).

Streams and Mountains Without End: Asian Art and the Legacy of Sherman E. Lee at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 27-August 23, 2009).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1957.40