A pale green and mushroom coloured jade 'lotus' washerSong/Ming Dynasty
Carved as a concave lotus leaf supported by a spray of leafy tendrils carved in reticulation to form its handles and base, the details finely incised, the main washer flanked by a smaller mushroom-coloured leaf.
9.5cm (3 3/4in) wide注脚Jade brush washers in the shape of a lotus leaf became popular accessories for the scholar's desk in the Song Dynasty.

Lotus washers of this shape, dated to the 13th/14th century, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. nos. 1857-1888 and 1623&A-1882. The latter is also illustrated by C. Clunas, Jade Carvers and their Customers in Ming China, Transactions of the OCS, no. 50 (1985-6), fig. 1, where the author suggests a possible Southern Song date for this and similar artefacts.