brush/pen-rest BM-Franks.147.b

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1506-1521
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:landscape
Dimensions:Height: 11.70 centimetres Length: 22.50 centimetres Width: 5 centimetres

Description:
Porcelain five-peaked mountain-shaped pen (brush) rest with underglaze blue decoration. This thickly potted porcelain pen rest is in the form of a mountain range of five peaks with scalloped slopes. The central peak is the highest, with two smaller peaks in diminishing sizes on either side. Integral to the pen rest is a rectangular ridged plinth which is pierced with two large holes at each end of the base. The pen rest is decorated in underglaze blue with a different calligraphic inscription on either side, written within a square, set in a diamond-shaped frame, surrounded by lingzhi scrolls. The peaks are emphasized with single blue lines and the stand with a design suggesting ruyi cloud feet, a typical feature of Zhengde porcelain. On the base is a six-character Zhengde reign mark in a double square. The once-broken central peak is now restored and the three highest peaks are chipped. Inscribed.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The present pen rest belongs to a group referred to in former times by English scholars as ‘Mohammedan wares’. These are characterized by Arabic or Persian inscriptions within roundels or square cartouches surrounded by formal designs. Mostly they are heavily potted fine-quality porcelains with mid-blue underglaze decoration beneath a greenish-blue-tinged glaze. All bear Zhengde imperial marks. Shapes are mostly confined to traditional Chinese items for a scholar-administrator’s desk and include pen rests, pen or seal boxes, ink stones, covered boxes, vases, lamp stands, powder containers, desk screens and incense burners. Inscriptions proclaim the function of the vessel, such as ‘pen rest’, or encouraging phrases, such as ‘strive for excellence in penmanship’, or lines of poetry, or common religious sayings or quotations from the Koran. Difficulties in deciphering these inscriptions are ascribed to the calligraphic style adopted by the decorators at Jingdezhen. Such wares were not made for export. Zhengde desk porcelains with Arabic and Persian legends are not found in either the Topkapi Saray or the Ardebil shrine, where some serving dishes and bowls with a Zhengde mark and related Arabic inscriptions can be found including, for example, a large dish; there are no desk ornaments, but table wares that belong to a different type and are much more finely potted. Instead, the pen-rests were most likely made for Muslim administrators at the Chinese court. These men held considerable power during the Zhengde reign. Indeed a Muslim merchant, Ali Ekber, travelled from eastern Turkey to China in 1505 and 1506 and, besides recording the process of manufacturing porcelain, noted that the Zhengde emperor had converted to Islam, a fact unrecorded in the Chinese Ming official histories. From other imperial quality porcelains made at Jingdezhen and decorated with foreign scripts, such as an example with ‘Phags-pa characters (see 1926.1124.1), we surmise that the Zhengde emperor was fascinated by non-Chinese scripts.Although there are Arabic inscriptions, the shape of the pen rest is not Near Eastern but is a traditional Chinese form. Peaked mountain pen-rests were first made in underglaze blue-and-white porcelain in the Yuan dynasty. An example with four peaks and a built-in frog-shaped water dropper was unearthed at Hangzhou in 1987 and is now in the Institute of Archaeology of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang province.The present pen rest was bought in Beijing just before 1876 when Sir A. W. Franks published it and exhibited it at the Bethnal Green Museum in London’s East End. Franks’ main contact in Beijing was Dr S. W. Bushell, so it is probable that Bushell bought the pen rest for him there. Similar examples are in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.