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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
134843
label
Brush Washer
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
134843
contentType
object
title
Brush Washer
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.
date
late 1000s–1127
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60741498
genreSpecific
Ceramic
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Diameter: 12.8 cm (5 1/16 in.); Overall: 3.8 cm (1 1/2 in.)
cul
China, Henan Province, Baofeng, Qingliangsi, Northern Song dynasty (960-1127)
accession
1957.4
Source extras
tec
porcelaneous stoneware, Ru ware
tombstone
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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1957.40
titleInOriginalLanguage
汝瓷筆洗盤
collection
China - Song Dynasty
didYouKnow
The little black spot in the glaze inside the dish is one of the slight imperfections characteristic of genuine Ru ware.
citations
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 843
citation
Lee, Sherman E. <em>A History of Far Eastern Art</em>. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1964.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pl. 36, p. 340
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 256
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 256
citation
Valenstein, Suzanne G. <em>A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics</em>. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 75, fig. 30
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 338
citation
Tichane, Robert.<em> Those Celadon Blues</em>. Painted Post, NY: New York State Institute for Glaze Research, 1978.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 3.14, p. 27.
citation
Kleinhenz, Henry J. "Porcelains for Imperial Use: The Sung Dynasty." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 65, no. 4 (1978): 135–150h.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 140, fig. 6, a
citation
Ball, Victoria Kloss. <em>Architecture and Interior Design</em>. New York: Wiley, 1980.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 5.62, p. 204
citation
Lee, Sherman E. <em>A History of Far Eastern Art</em>. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 369; Reproduced: p. 340, color pl. 36
citation
Neils, Jenifer. <em>The World of Ceramics: Masterpieces from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Museum in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1982.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 106, p. 102
citation
Guo li gu gong bo wu yuan 國立故宮博物院 . <em>Hai wai yi zhen: taoci</em> [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.
page_number
Reproduced: pl. 102, p. 102
citation
Mowry, Robert D. "Koryo Celadons." <em>Orientations</em> vol. 17, no. 5 (May 1986), pp. 24–39.
page_number
Reproduced: fig. 11, p. 32
citation
Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. <em>Masterworks of Asian Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 54–55
citation
Chung, Anita. "A Connoisseur's Eye, A Scholar's Mind: The Legacy of Sherman Lee." <em>Orientations </em>vol. 40, no. 5 (2009).
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 32, fig. 6
citation
Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 90–91
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 98–99
citation
“A Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em> 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8–33.
page_number
Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 31
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide.</em> [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 33
citation
Giuffrida, Noelle. <em>Separating Sheep from Goats: Sherman E. Lee and Chinese Art Collecting in Postwar America</em>. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2018.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 123, fig. 70
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:53:18.616000
sourceId
134843
dept
Chinese Art
coll
China - Song Dynasty
med
porcelaneous stoneware, Ru ware
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
acb0c976c501fd29