A Chinese green-ground biscuit bowl. Kangxi

The present bowl belongs to a group of bowls with several different shapes, usually generically describes as “Brinjal” bowls. In shape, these bowls vary from a more rounded version with flaring sides, to a straighter, more conical version, such as the present example. They are known in yellow, green, brown, and white grounds. The decoration is typically incised with patterns of flowering branches outside and a lingzhi fungus inside.

The name “brinjal” derives from an old Anglo-Indian word for eggplant, and may have been adopted because of the aubergine colour often employed for the decoration. The date when these bowls were made, which was traditionally attributed to the Kangxi period, has been a matter of much academic debate in recent years. Stephen Little asserts that the whole group might dated to the earlier Transitional period. Michael Butler suggests that this production occurred later in the early-to-mid Kangxi period.

These bowls most likely represent the development of “on the biscuit” decoration from this earlier period. These bowls were, before being exported to Europe, probably used in a scholarly context — in the studio of a literati as part of his space for reading, writing, and contemplation — particularly for admiring their texture and form as objects of aesthetic inspiration.