Japanese Blue and White wares 17th Century - Other wares - Page 1

Object 2012577

Kendi

Japan

1670-1690

Height 164 mm (6.46 inch), diameter 99 mm (3.90 inch), diameter of mouthrim 24 mm (0.94 inch), diameter of footring 51 mm (2.01 inch), weight 377 grams (13.30 ounce (oz.))

Kendi on footring, spout on the shoulder, long cylindrical neck ending in a splayed mouth with overturned rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with a simplified landscape. On the shoulder a band with single dots and a monochrome underglaze blue band on the spout and neck flower sprays.

This small kendi is rather sketchily painted. The band with dots may have been derived from the small border panels with simplified tassels and dots of the late kraak pieces. The flower sprays indicate a late 17th-century date. Similar kendis are in the Toguri Museum Tokyo, and several other collections. A ribbed variety is also known.

Jörg states that the kendi is a drinking and pouring vessel widely used in Asia. Its basic shape is a bulbous body, a long neck and a tubular or breast-shaped (mammiform) spout on the shoulder. The kendi has no handle and one holds it by the neck and drinks from the spout. The kendi seems to have evolved from the Indian kundika and spread throughout Asia, changing shape and adapting to existing local vessels for similar use. Kendis of Chinese kraak porcelain of the first half of the 17th century and Japanese kendis of the second half were part of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC) porcelain assortment for the inter-Asian trade. Apparently, they also reached The Netherlands in small quantities, probably as part of the belongings of retiring VOC employees. They were not used according to their traditional function in The Netherlands and must only have been decorative items or were filled with flowers as shown on paintings. Kendis were not used in Japan (or China) and were made exclusively for export in Arita from the 1660s. Kendis usually have a smooth body, but Japanese potters frequently made a variety that is vertically ribbed by moulding the piece. Another characteristic of Japanese kendis is the broad overturned mouthrim, seen less often in Chinese pieces.

Arts states that the gorgelet (Portuguese: gorgoletta) or ghendi of the Japanese was originally a drinking vessel in general use everywhere in Asian countries. The porcelain form originated during the Ming period probably from a far older earthenware prototype. Later on, after the habit of tobacco-smoking appeared in Asia at the beginning of the 17th century, it was also used as a nargileh base in many Mohammadan countries. The VOC registers indicate that ghendi were made by the Japanese more or less from the beginning, as an imitation of the Chinese examples. In 1669 Bengal ordered from Deshima twenty large and small ghendi. The biggest market was Southeast Asia. In 1671 Chinese junks carried a consignment of seven hundred Japanese-made ghendi from Deshima to Batavia and another six hundred in the following year.

For an identically shaped, sized and decorated kendi, please see:

Condition: Some firing flaws, two firing tension hairlines to the footring, a chip to the inner tip of the spout.

References:

Arts 1983, p.50, Pl. 23

Kyushu 1990/1, cat. 91 & 92

Jörg 2003/1, pp.63-66

Price: € 899 Currency Converter