A Japanese Imari Tokuri. Decorated in the typical palette with alternate panels of a Carp leaping a waterfall and a Dragon in clouds above a Tiger 19thC. Height: 7 3/8″ (18.7 cm). Condition: excellent, light wear to gilding

An Arita porcelain seashell form, scalloped dish with tall foot. Enamel decoration of Ho-o (Japanese mythological Phoenix) in the Kakiemon pallete - black, red, blue, green, yellow and gold overglaze enamel - applied over the glaze inside the dish. Slightly opaque white, large bubble suffused glaze with faint celadon pooling in recesses. Kiln grit adhering to the unglazed foot rim...

An novelty Hirado porcelain moulded sake ewer in the form of a large carp with the figure of Kinko Senin hanging on to his back decorated with a combination of iron brown and cobalt blue underglaze colours. The ewer measures approximately 23cm in length and 15 stands in height. The ewer is in excellent condition with no cracks, chips or restoration and unusually it retains its original lid...

A large shallow bowl decorated in Kenjo Imari style with a central motif of a leaping Shishi with a peony branch framed by n under-glaze blue wave border with an elaborate diaper brocade ground inset with “S” and “C” scroll shaped reserves containing floral motifs, including Camelias, and peach form stylised Shou medallions in iron red and gilt framed by a further diaper border in under-glaze blue...

A set of five Arita sake cups, guinomi, in tsutsu-gata form decorated in sometsuke style with a scrolling vine arabesque, hagi-karakusa, imitating the habit of the Bush clover, hagi, a member of the Vetch family one of the seven plants emblematic of Autumn...

A set of five drinking cups, choko, that are decorated with a pattern of underglaze blue bifurcated pines set against a ground of iron red bamboo leaves, with an irregular cloud shaped reserve containing a gilt and iron red prunus tree with a pine bark lozenge superimposed containing a stylised cherry blossom motif set against a seeded green ground...

A set of five soba choko, straight sided cups, so called boars mouth cups, decorated with a pattern of a grape vine and a wasp (hachi, bee, wasp or hornet) an autumnal motif. Curiously the grapes have been inverted to resemble the more familiar pomegranate. These would have probably been used for serving sake rather than soba noodles. The cups measure in 8cm diameter and are 6.4cm in height. They are in excellent condition, no cracks, chips or restoration...

A curious set of sake cups decorated with auspicious leaping Carp, Koi, amongst water weeds with stylised waves with ao-dama, blue balls decorated with a repeating scale or imbricated wave pattern, seigaiha, painted in a limited palette of just iron red, gilt and underglaze cobalt blue. The base of the cup painted with an overlapping lotus leaf border. The rim of the bowls decorated with a diaper pattern with small reserves containing auspicious lotus flowers...

A very unusual Arita barber’s bowl dating to the second quarter of the 18th century. The oval body is moulded and features butterflies and peonies on a ribbed ground. This form is very likely to have been based on Dutch Delft pottery or perhaps a silver example. The interior is decorated in a rather striking manner with a band of underglaze blue fishes amongst breaking waves. The reverse is decorated with prunus sprigs, and two holes to the foot-rim to allow suspension...

A large and deep porcelain charger, excellently potted, excellently decorated in an most beautiful cobalt blue with an Kraak-design. The base marked in underglaze blue. Japanese Arita ware, 17th century. Diameter: 39,6 cm. Condition: Perfect.

A rare pair of miniature vases of hexagonal baluster form vases with the elegant proportions typical of the early eighteenth century c.1700-1720. Each vertical compartment decorated with flowers, chrysanthemums, pinkes and peonies. These belong to a class of porcelain that can be best described as toyes, small novelty collectables. The vases measure approximately 11.5cms (4.5 inches in height) in height and 5.5cms in diameter. The interiors are unglazed...

A very unusual export dish decorated with an aubergine enamelled dragon set against a black ground and green clouds in a circle with a central Chrysanthemum motif. The border painted in a three colour Imari palette of Peonies and Irises. The reverse is undecorated. The dish is in excellent condition with no cracks, chips or restoration...

A very unusual export dish decorated with an aubergine enamelled dragon set against a black ground and green clouds in a circle with a central Chrysanthemum motif. The border painted in a three colour Imari palette of Peonies and Irises. The reverse is undecorated. The dish is in excellent condition with no cracks, chips or restoration...

A covered bowl or tureen probably made for the European market, but of conventional Japanese form, decorated with a pattern of Peony branches to the exterior in iron red and underglaze blue with green and black enamels and gilding. The interior painted with an enamelled green and black peony petal mon covering a round area of unglazed biscuit porcelain, that suggests that further bowls may have been stacked within the bowl during the original firing...

A small Hirado porcelain koro with reticulated kagome basket weave panels, salamander form handles, and small scroll feet...

A Japanese Imari Tureen and Cover Decorated with flowering peony The inside with a large peony flower 18thC Diameter: 6 7/8″ (17.4 cm) Condition: excellent, small firing fault to interior of lid

A rather unusual Arita dish of barbed or lotus form with a fluted cavetto based on a 17th century Chinese model. The rim decorated with a chocolate brown fuchibeni glaze and the border decorated with the auspicious bagua, eight trigrams, with a central motif showing a pair of humorously painted Chinese priests The right hand portion of the design obscured by what appears to be a stylised curtain. The reverse decorated with a floral scroll. A small fuku seal mark to the reverse set within five ...

A Japanese Imari chocolate cup, cover and saucer made for export to the European market dating to the early 18th century. Decorated with a rich Imari style ground of stylised palmate leaves and Peony blooms inset with ogee form reserves with Chinese style estuarine landscapes. An overlapping lotus petal border to the base of the beaker in underglaze blue The saucer and beaker are in excellent condition. The cover has been broken but has been cleanly re-stuck creating an almost invisible repair....

A very large Chinese porcelain wucai enameled ewer or wine pot of compressed ovoid form with cover decorated with an overall brocade pattern composed of hexagonal cells each containing an enamelled four petal flower inset with two large reserves containing respectively Camelias and Rocks, and Flowering Plum and Rocks. The body of the ewer is comparatively thinly potted, and the handle and spout are simply luted to the body with slip. The ewer was made for the Japanese market. Such highly decorat...

A good quality Kakiemon type export plate decorated with a pair of Hoo birds on a rock with flowering bushes. The rim of the dish decorated with a “Birdes in Branches” arabesque with a rather crudely painted Chrysanthemum blooms with birds both sitting and with wings out-stretched. This pattern occurs both in Kakiemon type enamels and in this blue and white version. See Fine and Curious no 240, a blue and white teapot, at page 193. See the Catalogue of the Complete Shibata Collection no 154...

This extraordinary piece depicting what appears to be a learned scholar (possibly of foreign origin?) being escorted by a young vassal, is done in fine white porcelain from the Hirado region of Japan. Hirado wares—alternately known as Mikawachi wares in some contexts—are known throughout Japan and also abroad for their high quality and fine craftsmanship and date back at least as far as the mid-18th century when they were produced exclusively for powerful lords and their families. In the 19t...

An intriguing set of five small dishes kozara decorated in kakiwake sometsuke style with a design of three Chinese boys, karako, manoeuvring a large snow ball, set within a yukiwa snow flake shaped reserve framed by a band of plum blossom set against a dark blue ground. The design is a variant of the “One hundred boys playing” pattern popular on Chinese porcelain from at least the Yongle period. The immediate source of the design would appear to be taken from a woodblock polychrome pri...

A large deep bowl with bulls eye base decorated with a Kraak fuyo-de style pattern to the interior and exterior with the central mikomi decorated within a classic Chinese landscape with the figure of the Chinese poet Lin Bu contemplating a small gnarled tree, presumably a Mountain plum, upon a rocky outcrop. Alternatively the figure may represent Li Bai, if so he is gazing at a waterfall, not incorporated in the design, lying beyond the small tree. The bowl measures 28 cm or 11 inches in diam...

An intriguing set of five small dishes kozara decorated in kakiwake sometsuke style with a design of three Chinese boys, karako, manoeuvring a large snow ball, set within a yukiwa snow flake shaped reserve framed by a band of plum blossom set against a dark blue ground. The design is a variant of the “One hundred boys playing” pattern popular on Chinese porcelain from at least the Yongle period. The immediate source of the design would appear to be taken from a woodblock polychrome prin...

A Japanese Arita Polychrome Bowl, The chrysanthemum moulded bowl decorated in strong enamels with floral sprays including carnation extending over the rim to the interior. Arita E18thC. Diameter: 7 3/4″ (19.8 cm ). Condition: excellent perfect. Compressed slightly oval shape.

A dish intended for use in the kaseki meal decorated with three ragged fans inset within an arabesque of Hagi, bushclover, one of the seven plants of Autumn, that makes up the Akikusa-de. The sensu, Japanese folded fan, was often used as a seasonal motif representing the hot and dry months of summer, so the discarded ragged appearance of the fans shows that summer has ended, and that the winds of autumn have arrived. They can be seen in a more general sense as symbols of the transience and frag...

Antique Japanese porcelain maneki-neko, or "beckoning cat", a popular image for welcoming good fortune into the home. They often come in colors such as white, black, or gold. This porcelain statue happens to be in what is considered the luckiest color of calico. Beautifully hand painted with gilt accenting.

Meiji period c1900. Dimensions: 12" H x 5" W

A five colour dish decorated with an auspicious pattern showing a dragon chasing a flaming pearl and a hoo bird chasing a thunderbolt. Integrated within the design are the Three Friends of Winter, shochikubai, and a pair of iron red ogee form lotus medallions each containing a precious pearl tama, surrounded by pear blossom, nashihana, symbols of longevity and prosperity. A central motif of a pair of Pomegranates, zakuro, symbols of fertility. The reverse decorated in underglaze blue and iron...

A scalloped form dish with a very unusual design it would seem adapted from a Chinese precedent decorated with the “Hawthorn pattern”. The outer register decorated with a cracked ice ground, Hyouretsu-mon, with scattered plum blossom, baika, inset with snowflake roundels, yukiwa, with Autumn grasses, and hexafoil niche style reserves with precious objects, cash and scrolls tied with ribbons. The centre decorated with hyouretsu-mon ground inset with two pairs of overlapping snowflake ro...

A very unusual large dish of conventional European metal form with a Kraak style fuyo-de pattern partially executed in underglaze blue the remainder painted in enamels. The central reserve decorated with hemp palms, shura, and cyclads, sotetsu, next to a body of water framed by a border of brocade lapets in enamels. The rim with reserves containing precious objects, and stylised auspicious five petal flowers, rather than the more usual Aster or Chrysanthemum flowers in Kraak style. A very simil...

A long dish of elliptical form moulded with petals decorated with a dense hagi-karakusa ground and an oval reserve containing a simple flowering Apricot, ume, growing from a rock. The reverse decorated with Karakusa sprigs, and a spiral Fuku within a double square. The dish dates to the early Eighteenth century circa 1700-1740. The dish is in good condition with no chips, cracks or restoration. It measures 20.3cm in diameter, 10xm at its widest and stands 4.5cm high

A large dish decorated in reverse painted style, kakiwake, with a pair of Karako, Chinese boys, Shirasagi, White Egrets, and Chrysanthemums. The border painted with a narrow band of shippo against a blue ground, and the reverse of the dish painted with a series of ten auspicious trigrams divided by zoomorphic motifs, perhaps intended to represent scroll dragons. A double square with a four character reign mark for the Xuande Emperor. The subject is taken from the Noh play Kikujido, “the ...

A very fine quality dish decorated with a pattern of stylised Lotus-mon with three quadrilobed reserves each containing an element of the shochikubai, pine, take, bamboo, matsu, and prunus, ume. The centre decorated with a small central roundel framed by a border of demi-florets containing a Dragon delineated in gilt with green and iron red enamels holding a jewel, tama, in its claw. The rim of the dish is decorated with a border of alternating double crested waves and gilded. The reverse decora...

A square dish with canted corners decorated in Sometsuke style with a Peony mon to the centre made up of three stylised Peony blooms bound together with karakusa and four panels containing vignettes of a Dragon chasing a pearl, and waka matsu, young pine, set against a bank of snow with flower like snowflakes falling in the background. The rim decorated with a band of alternating double crested waves and flowers. The dish dates to the second quarter of the Eighteenth century. The reverse decora...

A bowl of unusual inverted bell shape with a comparatively high foot-rim the exterior decorated in early Ming style with an elaborate high looping lotus arabesque to the body. The foot decorated with stylised lotus petals and an “oxo” border to the foot-ring. The interior of the bowl decorated with a band of alternating pairs of crested waves with blossom to the rim, and a roundel form “pussy foot dragon” with stylised clouds in the well of the bowl. The bowl dates to the period 1740-60....

An early Eighteenth century export dish decorated with a central motif of a Large Vase on a Veranda containing an arrangement of Cherry flowers and Peonies. The border is divided into a series of fan shaped reserves of increasing size. Each separated by further vertical bands of blue brocade inset with Kikumon, The design is something of a departure from the more usual regular formats based upon the Kraak fuyo-de pattern. The largest reserve containing a garden scape containing a weeping flower...