“Peach-bloom” Brush Washer

This brush washer has a contracted mouth and a foot ring. Its interior is covered with white glaze, while the exterior has glaze in peach bloom color with tiny green spots. The bottom is glazed white and painted with reign mark in regular script (kai shu).
Fired at high temperature, peach blossom glaze is a precious type of the copper-red glaze popular in the Kangxi reign. The wares are divided into three grades: the first is “big red gown”; the second grade is called “drunken lady” or “lady pattern” because the glaze contains some spots in different shades of color; the lowest one is called “donkey’s liver” or “horse’s lung” because its darken, and less favorable color. Since it is difficult to fire “peach blossom” wares, the official kilns only produced a few ones in small size and presented all to the imperial court. Of the extant the largest one is no more than 20 centimeters high.