Catalog (79)

Hobson, R.L., The wares of the Ming dynasty. Rutland/Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company 1962. With dust jacket and with card board slip case. 1st edn. Little tear in back of dust jacket, all in all in near new condition.
Book on ceramics and porcelain with 9 color plates, 50 b/w plates, hand drawn marks, etc.

Schuster, Felicia and Cecilia Wolseley, Vases of the sea. Far Eastern porcelain and other treasures. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1974. Hard cover binding with dust jacket.
Book on vases from China and from Japan made of porcelain, bronze, jade and cloisonne, and also a chapter on ivory and on lacquer. Numerous color illustrations.
Few unimportant traces of usage on the dust jacket, all in all in near new 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

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

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

A male figure sitting in ceremonial kamishimo dress of a striped hakama (pants) and a golden kataginu (vest) over a red kimono, his head shaped like the top of an erected penis.

Soft molded earthenware, painted in cold-applied colors and gold and silver.

Japan, 1960s or earlier.

H 4 in.

Colors and metal pigments chipping, otherwise good condition. Because of the cold application, the colors are fragile and easily wash away.

Rare subject matter

A sitting lady in Heian era court dress and hair, clutching a giant golden matsudake mushroom. She wears a bright red hakama and light blue kimono. The shape of the mushroom has a close resemblance to a penis and the sculpture definitely has an erotic meaning.

Hand modeled, soft hollow earthenware, painted in cold-applied colors and gold.

Japan, 1960s or earlier.

H 5 in.

Colors somewhat smudged and chafed; frittings at the bottom edge. Because of the cold application, the colors are fragile and easily wash away.

Okame standing in blue over-kimono with a sweet and cheerful facial expression. Her garment falls open a little, showing a red colored underkimono or liner, indicating her profession. Cradled in her arms is a large matsudake mushroom. The shape of the mushroom has a close resemblance to a penis and the sculpture definitely has an erotic meaning.

Soft hollow cast earthenware or plaster, painted in vibrant cold-applied colors and sprinkled gold flakes.

Japan, 1960s or earlier.

H 5 in.

Colors somewhat smudged, especially the blue. Some black smudges in the white face, affecting her left eye. Because of the cold application, the colors are fragile and easily wash away.

Kogo, container for storing incense during the tea ceremony, in the shape of the bud of a lotus flower.
The bottom half decorated on the outside with classic lotus sepals, as used to image a Buddhist lotus dais, in relief. The top half also decorated in low relief in a much more stylized manner. The closed lotus bud, crowned by a 16-petal chrysanthemum and topped by a knob, which is probably a stylized rendering of the chrysanthemum heart.

Alternatively the shape could refer to the sprout of a butterbur plant (fukinoto).

Thin earthenware that turns reddish brown in unglazed spots, covered in multiple colored glazes, such as dark brown, reddish brown, gray and soft pink; inside is glazed dark brown.

Kyoto/Kiyomizu ware. Kochi style, with impressed artist’s seal and signature inside the cover: Choraku.

Japan, Showa era, ca. mid-20th century.

H 2.25 x Diam 2.1 in.

Some glaze chafing on the inside rim of the cover.

A similar piece by Kiyomizu Rokubei I (1738-1799) is in the British Museum, inventory no. Franks.1311 (identified as lotus flower). Another piece by Eiraku Zengoro XI, Hozen (1795-1854) is in the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, inventory no. 2012.8.44 (identified as butterbur sprout). Ohi Choraku (1902-1999) studied under Aoki Sotokichi. He received the name of Ohi when Ohi Chishin’s kiln was closed in 1924. Exhibited regularly.

Small and cute box for keeping incense, called kogo, originally used in the tea ceremony. Hand modeled coarse red stoneware with small sediment and mineral inclusions. White irregular glaze caused by feldspar inclusions in the clay that melted during the firing and dripped over the outside.
The overall shape is an irregular cylinder which turns into a plum blossom when seen from the top, with three clusters of stamen. Ash glaze inside the lower part of the box.

Small, shallow impressed seal in the shape of ‘i-no-me’ (boar’s eye, more or less heart-shaped).
The foot has been shaped to show the shame boar’s eye as to mark the kiln Most likely Shigaraki ware, possibly Iga ware.

Japan, Showa era, 1970s-80s

H 2.1 x W 2 in.

Excellent condition

Incense box of irregular circular shape. Over a light gray clay thickly applied opaque, lightly crackled glaze with feldspar that leaves bare a few small areas uncovered, which colored orange red during firing. On the cover a few circular black-brown underglaze "brush strokes".
Although bottom and cover clearly match, they do not make an airtight close line, but leave a couple of gaps. Few very short firing cracks.
Shino ware, Japan. Showa era, mid-20th century.

H 1.25 in.; W 2.25 in.

One tiny chip on a rim, otherwise 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

Figure of an eight-armed octopus, lying down in an almost elegant pose. Stoneware with gradient brown-beige color glaze. Signed on the back Hakushi or Hiroshi. Japan, later part of Showa era.

Length ca. 13 ½ x D ca. 9 inches.

Mint condition

Fairly large sake bottle of dark brown stoneware, with an angular hip, rounded shoulder and slightly everting neck. Its shoulder and neck covered in a yellow and greenish natural ash glaze.
Bizen ware. Impressed seal mark in bottom.

Japan, Showa era, ca. 1970s

H 8.1 in.; diam. 5.4 in.

Excellent condition

Cute flower vase of convex shape with a flaring mouth. Four vertical ribs, creating four segments decorated each with a small impressed chrysanthemum rosette. Fine cream-colored stoneware with a yellowish green translucent glaze with fine crackle.

Potter’s mark on the bottom (looks like a smiley face), which is the signature mark of Kato Sakusuke IV.

Seto, Japan, 1970s or a little later

H 6.5 x diam 4.5 in.

Mint condition

Comes with the original wooden storage box, inscribed Ko Seto gama (seal in upper right); Kiseto, kabin (flower vase in yellow Seto; and signed Sakusuke saku and with the artist’s seal

Kato Sakusuke IV (1909-1996) was the 25th in line from Kato Kagemasa, the founder of Seto ware.
He graduated from the Kyoto Vocational School for Industrial Crafts in 1932, and trained in Kyoto for three more years. After returning to Seto and began making pottery under the guidance of his father. He inherited the title of Sakusuke IV in 1944.
He studied the traditional techniques of Oribe, Kuro-Oribe, Ki-Seto, and Ofuke, creating masterful and traditional ceramic/ceremonial works. In 1984 he was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property of the Prefecture of Aichi.

Mizusashi or kensui in the shape of a Chinese boy, or karako, holding Hotei’s large bag over his shoulder, as if dragging it.

Over brownish beige very fine stoneware a layer of mottled brown glaze has been applied, over which a blue-green finely crackled flambé dripping glaze. The inside covered with brown mottled glaze, the outside bottom left unglazed.
Impressed mark in the bottom: Kato Shuntai.
Japan, 19th century.
Height: 3.25 in.; diameter: 6 in. (8.3; 15.2 cm)
Excellent condition.

The jug comes with the original storage box. The inside of its cover is inscribed with authentication of the piece as a mizusashi in the shape of a karako in ao-Oribe, made by Kato Shuntai from Seto. Authentication written and signed by Matsumori An.....

Kato Shuntai (1802-1877) worked in many ceramic styles. The splashes of flambé crackled glaze are very typical for his works (Shuntai-yaki). His works and the works of his ancestors can be found in museums around Japan and the US.

Round tea bowl of more or less circular shape on a bamboo node foot. Fine cream-colored stoneware with decoration in the form of an abstracted character in slightly raised slip relief on opposite sides of the bowl. The bowl is covered in a light gray glaze on the inside, the outside is covered in a bright copper red glaze, turned brown along the foot.

No potter’s mark, but the bowl has strong resemblances to works by Kawai Kanjiro (1890-1966). The foot, the underglaze slip-trail decoration, the clay and the glazes are all pointing to the master. No storage box.

Japan, first half 20th century

H 3.6 x Diam. 4.25 in.

Mint condition

Clog-shaped chawan, tea bowl to be used in the tea ceremony. Over a whitish fine clay a silky black glaze and crackled white slip over which a decoration of interlocked diamonds and rings in iron brown.

Seal impressed in bottom/underside: Juzan. Refers to the Oribe potter Mizuno Juzan.

Mino ware, Oribe style, Japan. Showa era, 1950s

H 3 x W 4.25 in.

Perfect condition

There are at least two generations of Mizuno potters going by the name Juzan. The seal most likely belongs to the second generation Juzan, who lived lived 1908-1978.