A JAPANESE ARITA PORCELAIN SQUARE DISH, EDO PERIOD.

An attractive Japanese Arita porcelain square dish with canted corners, decorated with an oversized sage lost in reverie by a lake. The unusual borders completely painted with figures in a landscape. Late 18th ~ early 19th century.

By repute once part of the Bigelow Collection and disposed by auction in New England a few years ago.

Approximately 15.5cm square...

The inside of the bowl is painted with cherry tree boughs laden with blossoms—done in a dazzling underglaze blue-and-white porcelain distinctive of Imari-wares. Below, the trunks of the trees can be seen grounded in a grassy field resting on an abstract ring of karakusa (arabesque). The center of the bowl displays a fashioned wreath of cherry blossoms strung together with field grasses...

With meticulously sculpted vines and fantastic Peony blossoms in low relief on the kinuta celadon powdery blue background, this extraordinary vase is a truly Japanese expression of classical Chinese motifs...

A finely enamelled Japanese export bowl decorated with Chrysanthemums and Peonies between a pair of Fan Shaped reserves of Kiku form. The petals alternating between a gilt leaf and tendril blue brocade and an unusual iron red shaded wash. The veins of the gilt leaves created by the use of a scraffito technique. The interior with a band of peony and prunus sprigs. The central well of the bowl decorated with an iron red and gilt kiku mon. A single ring to the interior of the foot-rim of the bowl...

This Hirado-yaki brush-rest—fashioned for the scholars desk of a bygone era—features meticulously sculpted plum blossoms set in a porcelain reproduction of a knotted plum branch. 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...

A pair of Namasu or small serving bowls in revived Kakiemon style decorated with a depiction of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in low moulded relief; here represented by just two of them. The Sages were synominous with a hedonistic lifestyle of drinking and poetry. The foliate rims of the dishes are painted with a fuchi beni, iron brown glaze...

A large Japanese Imari dish of saucer form with slightly everted rim decorated in underglaze blue, iron red and gilding with a central motif of a vase on a verandah containing an arrangement of Peony and Chrysanthemum flowers. The cavetto of the dish decorated with an underglaze blue brocade ground inset with three lobed reserves containing Hydrangea, Ajisai, Chrysanthemums, Kiku, and Peonies, Botan. The reverse decorated with three Peony sprigs to the reverse...

A good Arita sometsuke style dish probably from one of the favoured inner set of kilns at Arita, the so-called Uchiyama kilns. The dish is decorated with a border of stylised waves, painted in reverse style, with a single branch of a Camelia Tree in the centre. The underside of the dish decorated with a pair of sketchily painted Gourd vines. For an identical dish see no 216 of the Shibata Collection Part II at page 87...

A Namasu or small serving bowl in revived Kakiemon style decorated with a depiction of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in low moulded relief; here represented by just two of them. The Sages were synominous with a hedonistic lifestyle of drinking and poetry. The foliate rim of the dish with a fuchi beni, brown glaze. The central roundel in the well of the bowl decorated with a Namban or Tojin style figure of a European with a two legged long tailed dog like creature...

A Namasu or small serving bowl in revived Kakiemon style decorated with a depiction of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove in low moulded relief; here represented by just two of them. The Sages were synominous with a hedonistic lifestyle of drinking and poetry. The foliate rim of the dish with a fuchi beni, brown glaze. The central roundel in the well of the bowl decorated with a Namban or Tojin style figure of a European with a two legged long tailed dog like creature...

An interesting dish of moulded Kraak form decorated with a partially obscured Chinese four toed Dragon painted in underglaze cobalt blue with gilt outlined enamelled auspicious clouds framed by a band of stylised Chrysanthemum demi-florets to the rim. The reverse of the dish is decorated in underglaze blue with stylised Chinese style auspicious clouds and a six character mark for the Emperor Yongzheng...

A set of five Sake cups of tapering cylyndrical form, nozoki, decorated in underglaze blue with a diaper border, renzuku mon, to inside of the mouth, and an iron red diaper ground inset with shaped reserves or mikomi, each containg a gilt outlined and enameled Suisen, the Japanese Narcissus with Chrysanthemum demi florets in iron red and gilt with matsuawabishi mon in underglaze blue flanking them. The cups date to the end of the late Mid Edo period. The cups measure between 5.5cm and 6cm high ...

A pair of Hirado dishes decorated with scenes adapted from the woodcuts of Utagawa Hiroshige. The dish on the left hand side is adapted from the Sixty Nine Stations of the Kiso Kaido, principally the station at Itabishi and in part, the pedlar with basket, the station at Takasaki. The dish on the right hand side shows a group of figures struggling against a gale probably inspired by the woodcutShono Shono from the Fifty three Stations on Tokaido Highway, but adapted with a great deal of licence....

An interesting namasu, serving dish or bowl, decorated entirely with green, aubergine, yellow, black and red enamels. A palette and style of decoration not dissimilar to that used in the mid seventeenth century that covers the whole of the interior of a dish with enamel decoration. In this case the enamelling disguises an unglazed ring to the interior of the bowl that would have enabled another dish to be stacked on it in the saggar. The base of the dish has spur marks where three spurs once sup...

A late Eighteenth century hexagonal form drinking cup painted with panels of Birds with various flowers, Chrysanthemums, Persimmon and Peach flowers with accompanying panels of reverse. The kacho-ga paintings are exceptionally well painted. The interior of the cup painted with a band of flowering Camellia and Peaches set against a dark blue ground. The bottom of the bowl decorated with further a pair of Camelias, and Peach branches. A four character Chenghua reign mark to the interior of the fo...

An Arita long dish of sampan form somewhat deeper and narrower than usually found. Painted with an idealised Chinese style landscape incorporating the elements of water and land. The cavetto painted with stylised lotus flowers enmeshed within a Hagi-karakusa, Bush clover vine arabesque. Gobenka with karakusa motifs to the sides of the dish, and a similar auspicious Lozenge (one of the Eight Precious objects) with karakusa at each end. A four character fukichosun mark to the interior of the foo...

A long dish of conventional form decorated in senbeki, pencilled, style with a pair of four toed Chinese Dragons in pursuit of flaming pearls all set against a lightening field. The central reserve decorated with stylised tadpole like thunder bolts. The reverse decorated with further lightening motifs and pearls. A small square seal mark containing the character Ho, precious treasure. Shards with this mark have been recovered from the kiln site of the Hokaoyama kiln dating to the late mid Ed...

A pair of Arita plates decorated in underglaze blues with enamels. The centre painted with a large tripod censer containing Spring flowering Peonies on a low table flanked by a pair of flower vases, containing Autumn flowering Pinkes and Chrysanthemums with a pair of birds. The rim painted with a pair of Hoo birds with Chrysanthemums and Peonies. The plate on the left uses blue enamels, as found in the Kakiemon palette, rather than aubergine enamels as used on the right. The reverse un-decorate...