Ducks

Did you know that the mineral jade is considered one of the hardest and most revered materials in the world ? These two mini bowls with duckheaded spoons are soapstone replicas of what a Chinese scholar would have in his study room, but then in a jade version, because that was seen as the material suited for noble gentlemen. They would function as water bowl and dripper to be used with inkstone to prepare the ink for calligraphy, one of the arts a scholar would practice. These are souvenirs from Beijing.
For Tiny Tuesday with thanks to ApolloFly for hosting this month :-)

Thanks very much for the kind comments and stars for yesterday’s mono Blip