Cylindrical Brushholder
Unknown Artist
1736–95 or later, mid-1800s?
Medium
porcelain
Dimensions
h. 11.5 cm · diam. 9.3 cm
Classification
Ceramic
Department
Chinese Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection
Accession Number
1944.178
About this artwork
The brush holder shows children celebrating seasonal festivals, pursuing games, and masquerading as adults with attributes that suggest their future careers in the military or civil service. Three boys play in the shadow of a garden rock with cricket cages; others parade a boy on a goat who wears the headgear of a scholar who passed first in the state examinations. Left to the goat kneels a boy who is about to ignite fire crackers lined up on a stone, a custom to celebrate the New Year. Moreover...