Circa 1880. A fine Japanese suzuribaku (writing box for storing brushes, inkstone and writing accessories) crafted from imported Chinese or “karaki” [‘foreign’] hardwoods. Scholar objects fashioned of precious woods imported from China were popular with Japanese followers of Chinese literati culture, and such objects are often characterized, in Japan as in China, by austere form and very subtle detailing so as not to distract from the beauty of the exotic hardwood. The box is elegantly shaped ...click for details
19th Century. Late Edo to early Meiji Period. Five Blue Monochrome Minpei dishes with impressed basket weave and foliage decoration. The pottery of Awaji in Hyogo Prefecture was founded by Minpei, a doctor and tea master in 1831 during the late Edo period. After barely a decade in 1842, the kiln was granted official status by the regional Daimyo. The Minpei kiln is known for its finely decorated, bright monochrome wares. These five, square-shaped plates with flared sides are each raised on ...click for details
WESTERN HAN DYNASTY (206 B.C. – A.D. 9). A crisply executed and well-designed small white bronze mirror of a well-documented type known in China as ‘riguang’ and representing the sun with eight rays pointing to a surrounding circular register bearing a related eight-character inscription. This example is nearly identical to a published example excavated at Luoyang in Henan Province (later the capital of the Eastern Han) although variations of different sizes but bearing similar inscriptions h ...click for details
A Ming to very early Ching dynasty white mutton fat jade cup. The double-handled vessel raised on a small circular foot, rendered in the archaistic style with two spiney-backed dragons grasping the mouthrim, their intertwining tails wrapped around either side of the cup in a swirling pattern executed in high relief. Mutton fat (nephrite jade) objects with their typically waxy texture predate jadeite carvings which became more available in the Ching dynasty. Small, two-handled cups, often inco ...click for details
Circa 1600. A fine late Ming Dynasty (Wanli Period) bronze dragon-mountain form brush rest. Brushrests in the form of stylized three-or-five peaked mountains are well known. This exceptional example, however, gives artistic expression to the ancient and underlying belief that mountain ranges are inhabited by dragons: the sinuous and scaly body and fish-like tail of the dragon (Fei-You) embody the mountain range itself. So often reduced to a cliché or mere pattern, the dragon is here wonderf ...click for details
Reticulated brushpots, especially in bronze, are extremely rare. This very refined example depicts dragons in relief amidst scrolling clouds, a narrow band of finely detailed leiwen (key-fret design) below a rounded lip and a band of ruyi-cloud pattern above the protruding footrim. The cylindrical walls of the bitong are fashioned in pierced or openwork, a decorative technique more often seen on the lids of bronze censers, here very effectively used to represent elegant, scrolling ruyi-clouds ...click for details
Two early and large huang-yang mu (Boxwood) figural carvings, late Ming to very early Ching Dynasty (17th /18th C). Roughly cylindrical in shape, each openwork piece has been carved from a single section of boxwood. The back of each piece is carved as a tree with overhanging branches and rich foliage beneath which are one immortal or divine figure on horseback flanked by two attendants. The central and most elaborately costumed figure wears an important headdress and rides an elegantly appoi ...click for details
Ching Dynasty. 18-19th Century. Ge and Guan wares of the Song and Yuan periods saw an enthusiastic revival during the Ching dynasty and are considered among the finest ceramic productions of the Yongcheng and Chien-Lung periods. The circular brushwasher offered here is of classic form with rounded walls, defined lip and softly rounded mouthrim, glazed inside and out with an evenly applied and luminous, blue-grey colored glaze with a fine iron-colored crackle. Undulations on the inside surface ...click for details
