Sold Ceramics - Sold Japanese wares with Western Designs 1653-1800 - Page 1

Object 2012182

Dish

Japan

1730-1750

Height 30 mm (1.18 inch), diameter of rim 225 mm (8.85 inch), diameter of footring 124 mm (4.88 inch), weight 451 grams (15.91 ounce (oz.))

Dish on footring, flat rim. On the base four spur-marks in a Y-pattern. Decorated in underglaze blue with an unknown European coat of arms; on the shield three severed bearded heads facing forward against a vertical striped background. The shape of the shield consists of volutes, the mantling around it is made up of fem branches, flowers and a putto head, a crown on top. On the sides four cartouches filled with stripes on a diaper pattern ground, on the rim three flower heads surrounded by leafy scrolls ((karakusa (spiky lotus)). The reverse is undecorated.

Japanese porcelain decorated with the coat of arms of Batavia officials and wealthy burghers was elaborate and exclusive. These pieces are rare and date mainly to the late 17th and early 18th century. Although it must have been as easy to order this porcelain as the initialled bottles, it did not happen frequently. We can only assume that there was a preference for the cheaper and easy-to-order Chinese armorial wares, which stimulated the fashion that quickly developed in the 1690s. One of the earliest known examples are dishes with the Pancras-De Vicq arms made for the occasion of their marriage in 1667. Even earlier are a few 17th-century bottles of old-fashioned shape with the coat of arms of Van Outshoorn, Valckenier, and other wealthy and influential Dutch families, while the later teacups and saucers with the Huydecoper arms will have been part of a teaset. Apparently armorial Kakiemon was never made, but we have the small group in Imari with the arms of the Van Buren, Brederode and Bambeeck families so exhuberantly decorated in Marot style. The Van der Meij pieces are a late representative of this group. In all, it is a very small harvest compared to the Chinese output since 1700. (Jörg 2003/1, p.211)

This as yet still unidentified coat of arms is probably of a Dutch family considering the style of the shield, mantling and crown (courtesy of Angela Howard, UK).

The overall armorial style is transitional, somewhere between Louis XIV and Louis XV(rococo), c.1740-1750.

For an identically decorated dish, please see;

Condition: Perfect.

References:

Tokyo 1984, cat 173

Jörg 2003/1, p.211

MacGuire 2023, cat. 276

Price: Sold.