Catalog (79)

Low tea bowl of irregular round shape. Raku-yaki with red glaze, decorated with black brushed-on spots and white patches, with fine crackle over all. Inside the foot a small area is left uncovered. Japan, Edo period, early 19th century.

. H 2-3/8 x W 5-1/4 inches

Minimal traces of usage, short crack

Very small stoneware chaire tea caddy, used in the tea ceremony during the colder months. Squat body with rounded shoulder and relatively wide mouth. Fine dark gray stoneware with yellow, brown and lavender colored glazes layered over each other and dripping down the body, with a fine thin crackle. Also glazed on inside. Seto ware, Owari Province, Japan, Edo period, 17th century or earlier.

H 2.25 inches.

Three brown lacquer repaired areas around the mouth, several longer and shorter very old vertical cracks, not in the least destabilizing the piece. All in all very good condition.

Provenance: Private collection of chaire, purchased at Christie's London, 2010; ex collection Louis Gonse; ex collection George Haviland; a catalog clipping comes with the piece, dating it to the 15th century.

Chaire with high, flat shoulder. Whitish gray stoneware with dark brown, partially transparent glaze with ochre colored splashes on shoulder, dripping down the body in thin clouds. Perhaps Seto region. Japan, 18th century.

H 3¾ inches

Some scraping of glaze on lip and body, consistent with age, all in all fine condition

Private collection of chaire (collection no. 54); bought from ‘private dealer’ (according to label inside piece); collection number in black lacquer written on bottom: 0-Ja-2-TOK-31-G

Irregularly shaped cylindrical chaire. Tea caddy used in the tea ceremony during the colder months. Dark brown or black glaze with one thick splash of yellow and green glaze. Footring. Raku style. Japan, 17th/18th century.

H 3¾ inches

Firing crack at lip, several old gold lacquer repairs at lip and foot and bottom, all in all fine condition

This probably was a drinking cup (mukozuke) originally and was converted into a tea caddy at some point.

Provenance: Private collection of chaire; purchased at Christie's South Kensington Japanese Art and Design Including Arts of the Samurai Wednesday 9 November 2011, Lot #81; Cleveland Museum of Art (paper labels TR2741; 17 146; and 17 146A); several other collection labels.

Stoneware water jar or mizusashi as used in the tea ceremony with round bottom developing into a diamond shaped edge. Greyish smooth stoneware, decorated with horizontal grooves, covered with brown iridescent glaze on the outside and with a mottled greenish-yellow glaze on the inside, dripping over the outside edge and down. Black lacquered, diamond-shaped coved. Takatori style, Japan, early Showa era, circa 1930-1950s.

H without cover 5¾ in.; with cover 6½ in.

Jar in fine condition, cover with 2 chips.

Tall and slender, almost cylindrical chaire. Brown fine stoneware with spiraling engraving on top, covered with olive green translucent glaze with fine crackle, and with a white and blue triangular patch dripping down. Seto region, Japan, 18th century.
Comes with wooden storage box.

H 6-1/8 inches

Fine condition

Provenance: Private collection of chaire (collection no. 17); purchased at Sotheby’s New York Important Japanese Works of Art, Sale 4599Y, May 6, 1981, Lot #314; collection c.m.s.p (oval handwritten label with no. 150)

Very large pear-shaped chaire. Very dark brown stoneware, thin walls, with thin glaze of oily colors and fiery brown-red running down. Ofuke ware, Owari Province (Nagoya), Japan, late 18th century.

H 4 ½ inches

Fine condition, old handwritten label, identifying the piece as Ofuke, dating it to 1780s.

Provenance: Private collection of chaire (collection no. 37); bought from E & J Frankel, New York, May 17, 1984; ex Vassar College collection; ex Pratt Institute collection (1906)

Small compact vase of irregular shape on a wide foot. Brown clay with white mineral and tiny pebble inclusions typical for Shigaraki and Iga ware, with green and white ash glaze over cross hatched pattern on the shoulder.
A small metal loop on the shoulder in the back to hang the vase from a beam in the tokonoma.

Bottom unglazed. Impressed seal of artist: Kozan.
Japan, Iga ware, Showa/Heisei, circa 1970s-1980s.

H 3-3/4 in., W 4-3/4 in.

Mint condition

Morisato Kozan (b. 1915). Well-known Iga ware potter

Stoneware receptacle, probably used as a kensui, or waste-water jug, in the tea ceremony. Relatively high, straight sides with a constriction under the edge, decorated with the typical green glaze patches and geometrical patterns and plant motives in iron brown on white slip. Bottom inside left unglazed. Impressed seal in bottom, in the shape of a flying plover. Seto ware, Oribe style, Japan, Taisho period or early Showa, 1920s-1930s.

H 4 ¼ inches, diam. circa 4 ¼ inches.

Inside with water stains (chalk), slightly calcified crackle of green glaze on outside, tiny glaze chip, all in all very good condition.

Rare pair of foxes that guard a Inari shrine. One holding a jewel in the mouth, the other a key. Each squatting on a little pedestal. Earthenware with mineral color pigments red, blue, white and black. Japan, Edo period, 19th century.

H 19-1/2 x W 6-1/2 x D 9 inches.

One tail restored, key broken and partially replaced for the sake of symmetry, few chips. All in all excellent condition.

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.

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

Vase or jar with globular body, standing on a short foot and with everting rim. Moon jar. Underglaze blue decoration of carp swimming in water. Signed and sealed. Bottom marked as well. Korea, late 19th or early 20th century.

Height 12 in., width 12 ½ in.

Mint condition

Ex coll. Peter K. Warren, CT

Chawan in Raku style, made in dry lacquer technique (kanshitsu) simulating ceramic. The lacquer is applied in such a way that you see small crevices and patches of red and brownish black lacquer in the same way we see it in Raku ware. Japan, Meiji era.

H ca. 3 ½ inches, dia. Ca. 4 ½ inches.

Excellent condition.

Comes with brocade pouch and plain wooden box.

Large storage jug of typical Shigaraki stoneware with small white inclusions, made in three sections, decorated in multicolor enamel and gold with a cat making a mouse train come to an abrupt halt. A cat, high back, hissing at the mouse going at the head of a train, makes the train come to a dead stop and the following mice tumble, roll, spill in a ripple effect. Funny details: tumbling palanquin, spilling fish, flying papers. Either folk art or export. Japan, 20th century.
Height: ca. 18.5 inches.
Unsigned work from a studio that decorates household ceramics with funny or fantastic images in overglaze enamels that can be fired at low temperatures.

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.

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.

1) Stoneware incense box or kogo in the shape of an onna daruma (female daruma). She sits in the typical way, all rolled up in her garment, indicating that arms and legs may have fallen off. Her face shows striking similarity to Okame. Cream colored and reddish brown glaze over whitish soft clay, the face left partially free, fine crackle in the glaze. Japan, Meiji period.
2) Stoneware incense box or kogo in the shape of Daruma, wrapped in his reddish garment, his face peeing out of the garment, looking up. Cream colored and red glaze with some black accents over a whitish soft clay, the face left partially free, strong, but very fine crackle in the glaze. Raku stamp on the inside. Japan, Meiji period.
Height: ca. 1 ½ inches each.
Condition:
1) Outer edge of lower part with tiny frittings and chips, two tiny glaze chips along the lines of the crackle (hardly visible). Generally very good condition. 2) On the back tiny pieces of glaze missing between the crackle lines, otherwise excellent condition.