Sold Ceramics - Sold Japanese Blue and White wares 18th Century - Other wares - Page 1

Object 2012347

Dish

Japan

c.1700

Height 29 mm (1.14 inch), diameter of rim 172 mm (6.77 inch), diameter of footring 106 mm (4.17 inch), weight 317 grams (11.18 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, straight rim with an underglaze dark brown edge. On the base four spur-marks in a Y-pattern. Decorated in underglaze blue with a coastal scene with a pagoda, trees and in the background fishing nets drying on poles encircled by an eight pointed scalloped medallion. The sides and rim in Chinese Kraak-style with eight large panels containing peach and auspicious symbols and six narrow panels filled with a scale pattern and dots. On the reverse six ogival or oval-shaped panels filled with lozenges and dots alternating with narrow undecorated panels. On the base the Chinese four-character mark; Da Ming nian zhi (made during the Great Ming dynasty) in a single concentric band. (Davison 1994, cat. 852)

In present-day Dutch collections, Japanese dishes and plates with Chinese kraak designs are still common and must have been an important part of the export shipments. Unfortunately, official VOC shipping lists only occasionally specify decorations in such detail that we can identify these kraak-style pieces. The kraak style was reserved largely for dishes, plates and saucers. Examples have normal borders divisions of wide and narrow panels while the centre shows the highly popular designs of a flower vase on a terrace, a river landscape with birds or flowering plants with a cricket. (Jörg 2003/1, p.23)

The underglaze dark brown edge on this dish is rare on Japanese dishes decorated in blue-and-white of this period. It was probably copied after earlier Kakiemon dishes with similar underglaze dark brown edges.

The crackled glaze is caused by the unequal contraction of the body and the glaze during cooling in the kiln after firing. (Jörg & Van Campen 1997, p.235)

Condition: Fine crazing to the glaze caused by the firing process.

References:

Davison 1994, cat. 852

Jörg & Van Campen 1997, p.235

Jörg 2003/1, p.23

Price: Sold.