Small greenish yellow washer which was made to contain water to be used for cleaning brushes after painting or calligraphy. A honey-colored streak in the stone was used to highlight the two mythical creatures crawling over the top. We believe that they depict ‘qilin’ although the usual single horn of a qilin is missing. Qilin symbolize Wisdom and Harmony. We obtained this washer in Shanghai in 1993 from the studio of the famous carver Ni Wei Bin. However it was not carved by him but by one of his students as the carving is nice but not comparable to the stunning carvings of the master himself (see Quick Find 6855). The bottom is engraved with a spurious Qianlong mark. The washer dates from the early 1990’s. Length 5.5 cm. Width 5.4 cm. Height 2.1 cm.