1-234-483 - The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images

Bowl with horses carrying books, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, China, 1662-1722. A fluted blue and white bowl with bracketed rim. The bowl is painted in the centre with a circular wave motif in a roundel beneath a narrow band of diaper pattern in deep blue at the rim. The exterior has six alternating horses carrying books amid waves, and dragon heads under clouds above a band of petals in reserve painted with various flower and leaf groups. The base has a ribboned emblem in a underglaze blue single lined circle. The lower half of the bowl is moulded into a lotus flower shape and is decorated with Buddhist symbols. There is also a leaf mark on the base. The horse carrying books is symbolic of the mandarin (horse) holding up the state/government (books).