This washing basin is made of carved jade, with a rounded square, almost petal design to it. It has a bat on the right side and a tree on the other. The stand is carved to fit the protrusions on the bottom of the jade basin.

Weight (lbs): 0.75
Height (In.): 2.5
Width (In.): 7
Depth (In.): 3.25
Size: 2.5 x 7.0 x 3.25
Maker: Unknown, Chinese
Material: Jade, Mahogany
Date: 20th C. Stand
Provenance: Loxahatchee Estate
Condition: Light scratching to the base, no noticed damage to the basin.
History: In ancient China, the oldest Chinese characters existing are Jiaguwén(???) characters carved on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons, because the dominators in Shang Dynasty(??) carved pits on such animals' bones and then baked them to gain auspice of military affairs, agricultural harvest, or even procreating and weather. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, the characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved.(Keightley, 1978). With the development of Jinwén (Bronzeware script) and Dàzhuàn (Large Seal Script) "cursive" signs continued. Moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles—some dating from 200 BC, and in Xiaozhuan style—are still accessible. About 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang(???), the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's character unification, which created a set of 3300 standardized Xiaozhuàn(??) characters. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, few papers survive from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The Lìshu(??) style (clerical script) which is more regularized, and in some ways similar to modern text, have been also authorised under Qin Shi Huangdi. Kaishu style (traditional regular script)—still in use today—and attributed to Wang Xizhi (???, 303–361) and his followers, is even more regularized. Its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (926–933), who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed a shape stabilization. The Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have been made, for example in the shape of ? which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order is still the same, according to old style. Styles which did not survive include Bafenshu, a mix made of Xiaozhuan style at 80%, and Lishu at 20%. Some variant Chinese characters were unorthodox or locally used for centuries. They were generally understood but always rejected in official texts. Some of these unorthodox variants, in addition to some newly created characters, compose the Simplified Chinese character set.
Condition: Light scratching to the base, no noticed damage to the basin. History: In ancient China, the oldest Chinese characters existing are Jiaguwén(???) characters carved on ox scapulae and tortoise plastrons, because the dominators in Shang Dynasty(??) carved pits on such animals' bones and then baked them to gain auspice of military affairs, agricultural harvest, or even procreating and weather. During the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, the characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved.(Keightley, 1978). With the development of Jinwén (Bronzeware script) and Dàzhuàn (Large Seal Script) "cursive" signs continued. Moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles—some dating from 200 BC, and in Xiaozhuan style—are still accessible. About 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang(???), the first to conquer the entire Chinese basin, imposed several reforms, among them Li Si's character unification, which created a set of 3300 standardized Xiaozhuàn(??) characters. Despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, few papers survive from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The Lìshu(??) style (clerical script) which is more regularized, and in some ways similar to modern text, have been also authorised under Qin Shi Huangdi. Kaishu style (traditional regular script)—still in use today—and attributed to Wang Xizhi (???, 303–361) and his followers, is even more regularized. Its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang (926–933), who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed a shape stabilization. The Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have been made, for example in the shape of ? which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books. The Kangxi and current shapes have tiny differences, while stroke order is still the same, according to old style. Styles which did not survive include Bafenshu, a mix made of Xiaozhuan style at 80%, and Lishu at 20%. Some variant Chinese characters were unorthodox or locally used for centuries. They were generally understood but always rejected in official texts. Some of these unorthodox variants, in addition to some newly created characters, compose the Simplified Chinese character set.