Chinese Rock Crystal Brushwasher, 19th Century. Photo courtesy Doyle

The small deep oval bowl with rounded sides and incised with a band of ringlets at the mouth edge, five children carved at either end of the bowl, their bodies conforming to the outline of the vessel, one side carved in seal-script relief from a white inclusion with the poetic inscription reading 'Zhi Chong Xin Sheng, cleverness is given up from the heart', and two seals reading Shi and Wu. Diameter 4 1/2 inches. Estimate $2,000-3,000

Doyle New York. Asian Works of Art. Monday, September 16, 2013. http://www.doylenewyork.com