This crescent-shaped rest is moulded in the form of a three-peaked mountain, each peak encircled by a dragon’s sinewy and writhing body, its mane cascading over the summit. There is a band of waves and stylised rocks below. The underside has a Wanli six-character mark within a double circle.

Five hundred brush rests in “openwork design” with three dragons among mountains, both in blue and white and wucai (five colours), were ordered in 1593 (as recorded in Jiangxisheng Da Zhi, published in 1597) and the present example could be one of these. Others are in the British Museum, the Percival David Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 36

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 21 September 1950 (21 guineas); formerly in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2