Catalog: Antiques: Regional Art: Asian: Japanese: Stoneware (17)

Storage jar with beautiful dark brown glaze drippings from the neck and shoulder down, over a dark brown stone ware with countless inclusions. Around the neck engraved with cross pattern. Shape somewhat distorted. Height 11 inches, width 10 inches. Two short cracks at the rim, one small chip at the rim, glaze partly rubbed due to extensive usage. Overall condition good. Japan 18/19th century.

Mid-size stoneware jar for storing tea leaves or other.
Brown stoneware with white inclusions and a green splash of natural ash glaze. Slightly widening from bottom to shoulder, with a short more or less straight neck with everting lip.

Japan, Momoyama – Edo period, 16/17th century.

Height 12 ½ inches.

Excellent condition.

Storage jar with tapering body, broad shoulder and slightly everted lip. Used for storing tea leaves.
Stoneware with some inclusions, pitted surface and natural ash glaze patches.

Iga ware, Mie Prefecture, Japan, Edo period, 17th or possibly a little later (early 18th century).

Comes with wooden storage box of a later date.

H 10-1/2 inches

Excellent condition

From the Collection of Osborne and Victor Hauge and their wives

Small serving dish of square, mokuzuke, of octagonal shape with two handles standing off the side. Thin light-colored stoneware covered with cream-colored glaze with fine crackle filled in the brown color from the foot to ¾ of the height. On top of the cream-colored glaze some iron-brown decorations of pine needle, plum blossom, cross hatch design and a mon-shaped design and a splash of green glaze with some blue in it. Inside a light textile structure impressed in the glaze. Oribe ware, Japan, Meiji era, 19th century.
H 2-3/8 x W 4 x D 3-3/8 inches.

One small area on top of rim scraped, all in all excellent condition.

Old sake bottle of strong conical shape with a short neck and everted rim.
Underneath the beautiful milky feldspar glaze a cobalt bue and black sketch-like drawing of sprigs of bamboo. Bottom glazed brown, as is typical for this ware. Mingei.

Most likely Ofuke (or Ofukei) ware, made near Nagoya, Japan.
Edo period, circa 1800
H ca. 6 x diam at bottom ca. 5.5 in.

Ofukei has a historical relation to Seto ware. Similar pieces were produced in the Seto region.

Kintsugi or gold-lacquer repair of lip, otherwise excellent condition

Heavy, cream colored stoneware oil plate (aburazara) shaped as a lotus leaf with curled up, irregular edge. Surface on ‘inside’ structured with cloth, decorated with geometric figures in iron brown glaze and covered with feldspar and typical Oribe green glaze.
Impressed maker’s mark in bottom: Jocho? tsukuru.
Japan, Seto region, Oribe, Meiji era, ca. 1900. Diam 7.25 x H 0.8 inches

2 old small chips and some frittings on rim, consistent with age and use

Sturdy storage jar for tea leaves or other goods with horizontally ribbed surface, sloping shoulder with very short neck. Coarse but dense clay with small inclusions. Outside middle brown with cream-colored and yellow natural ash glaze. Mingei.
Japan, 18th/19th century.

Height 7.5 inches, width 6 inches at the neck. Ash glaze partially rubbed off at upper edge and at the body commensurate with holding and using, otherwise very good condition.

Fairly large bowl of irregular round shape with indentations in upper edge and openings in the side, decorated with a large red lobster. The spiny lobster is traditionally eaten during the New Year. It is an auspicious food, as its curved back reminds of an elderly person, and it thus is a symbol of longevity.

Light colored stoneware with white glaze, over which iron red and some black (lobster) and thick, dripping green glaze.

Signature on the outside: Kenzan.

Ogata Kenzan-ware, Japan, Meiji-Taisho era, early 20th century.

H 3.9 x W 9.5 in.

Tiny, old chip on the rim in the green glaze, otherwise excellent condition

Midsize storage jar, tsubo. Greyish brown stoneware, with the typical white stone inclusions, partially bursting out through the surface. The ashes in the wood burning kiln settled during the firing onto the surface of the pot and melted, creating the beautiful brownish yellow ash glaze. This is a natural process that cannot be controlled by the potter beyond the decision of placement within the kiln.

Japan, Edo period, 19th century or a bit earlier

H 11.25 inches

Very good condition

A sweetmeat dish consisting of 1 central hexagonal dish surrounded by 6 fan-shaped dishes. Each dish has a straight side and is decorated in the center with one of the seven gods of good fortune, shichifukujin in overglaze enamels and gold on cream colored stoneware. The central dish holds the image of the only female member of the shichifukujin: Benzaiten.

The central dish is signed on the back Gyokuzan in a red and gold cartouche. The other six dishes are marked Gyokuzan in red and each have a mark ‘tsu’ at the upper left side of their backs.

Japan, Meiji era, late 19th century.

The ensemble is held together by a Chinese wooden base. This is a marriage, but it happens to fit snugly.

H of each dish ca. 1 x diam. of circle 9.75 in.
Wooden base H 2.3 x diam. 11.5 in.
Fan-shaped dishes ca. 4.74 x 3 in.
Central dish 4.2 x 3.6 in.

Central dish broken and repaired. Out of the break run two hairline cracks. Other dishes fine condition.

Gyokuzan is related to a manufacture of Satsuma ware in Kagoshima (formerly called Satsuma). The founder Chin Jukan XII (1835-1906) used the name Gyokuzan from 1874-1897.
A noteworthy detail is that the manufacture also produced blank (undecorated) wares which would be decorated by decorators, such as Yabu Meizan and Gyokuzan.

A set of 5 mid-size dishes in the shape of half opened folding fans. On the bottom of each a decoration of two wheels, floating in a river in iron brown underneath thick cream-colored opaque glaze, and the right-side corner covered in thick green glaze typical for Oribe. The inside structured through the impression of a muslin-like cloth.

The back is engraved to indicate the spokes of the fan. Unsigned.

Seto region, Oribe style, Japan, 19th century

H 0.75 x L 6 x W 4 in.

Excellent condition

Tall slender vase, slightly narrowed in the waist, with a square shoulder and short wide neck and mouth.
The finely ribbed body of middle brown coarse clay is covered with two elongated patches of thin, translucent reddish-brown glaze. The lip with splashes of greenish glaze, on the inside gray glaze.

Karatsu ware. Japan, late Edo period, mid-19th century

Height: 12.25 inches (30.5 cm).

Firing crack in bottom, NOT through and through (does not leak), otherwise mint condition

Large and rustic almost round platter, called ishizara in Japanese, used in kitchens and commoners’ households. Plain light greenish-yellow glaze that typically leaves the foot free. The many pinpoint spots where the glaze did not completely cover the stoneware has allowed dirt to penetrate, giving the surface a lively spotted face. Glaze has dulled over time from constant usage.
Five spurmarks in the center.
Mingei

Seto ware, Japan, Edo period, 1800-1850

H 2.75 x W 14.5 x D 14 in.

Repaired chip on rim, one old chip under rim, several smaller scrapings and damages all commensurate with age and heavy usage. Fissures in the glaze that have no impact on stability, usability or visual appeal.

From a private collection of mingei ceramics in New Jersey

Chawan tea bowl, or perhaps a soup bowl or a mukozuke. Fairly thin stoneware modeled in the shape of a drum with 8 nails (protrusions) along the upper edge that would hold the drum skin in place. Deep green glaze. Eight vertical lines engraved and filled in with gold.

A triangular shape is cut out of the foot by way of a potter’s mark. In the center of the bottom a round Raku seal impressed.

Raku ware, Kyoto, Japan, first half 19th century

H 3.75 x Diam at widest point 4.5 in.

Frittings all along the top edge, darkened to make them less noticeable, frittings on the drum knobs, gold dulled and worn

From a private collection of Japanese ceramic in New Jersey

Slightly tapered vase with horizontal ribs made of white stoneware, covered in a mottled glaze with cream and brown tones. On the front in white enamel and gold a winding, three-clawed dragon has been hand-painted. The back of the vase is flattened and there is a square opening towards the top of the vase, that allows an J-shaped hook to grab into it and hang it against the wall.

Traditional vase for ikebana, flower arrangement.

In the bottom there is a potter’s seal in the shape of a double gourd: Koji (unidentified).

Japan, Meiji-Taisho era, 1910s

H 7.8 in.

Excellent condition

Tall and slender jug in the shape of a storage jar for pickles or in the shape of an actual octopus pot (trap).
Grayish brown stoneware built up from coils of clay; the inside covered with green glaze, the outside left unglazed. On the outside sits a dark brown, three-dimensional octopus, the way an octopus would sit on an octopus trap under water, on its way to inspect the inside of the jug.

Black ink inscription, almost washed away completely.

Unsigned. Seto ware, probably Meiji era (ca. 1900).

H 10.25 x W at widest point ca. 6 in.

Small and old chip at edge of foot, few minor frittings along the bottom edge. All in all in very good condition

Tall and slender vase of heishi-shape made of fine, light brown stoneware, covered in a multi color purple flambé glaze. Over this in mostly white enamel a scene is painted of a large, partially deconstructed/built up skeleton, tied to sticks, and a host of small skeletons dancing and running around it between small clouds of gold dots.

The shoulder of the vase decorated in blue, white and greenish enamels and gold with leaf-like shapes, meandering lines and dots.

Unsigned. Japan, Meiji era or later? The vase itself may be earlier than the enamel decoration

H 15 in. (38 cm)

Excellent condition

Previously in the “Memento mori” collection of Richard Harris, Chicago. The collection was on display at several locations, under the title “The Death, A Self-portrait” (2012/13 London) and “Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection” (2012 Chicago)