Sold Ceramics - Sold Japanese Blue and White wares 17th Century - Other wares

Object 2011501

Covered jar

Japan

1680-1700

Height with cover 545 mm (21.46 inch), height without cover 445 mm (17.52 inch), diameter of mouthrim 162 mm (6.38 inch), diameter of footring 170 mm (6.69 inch)

Tall ovoid jar on footring, short neck with a wide slightly spreading mouthrim, domed cover with flattened conical knob. Decorated in underglaze blue with three large vertical panels. In each panel a large Hó-ó bird with spread wings on rockwork surrounded by various flowering plants. Between the panels scroll work with flower heads. On the neck, the shoulder and just above the foot bands of lappets. The cover is similarly decorated with three panels, filled with flowering plants and divided by flowering scrolls. On top of the cover a chrysanthemum-flower knob.

In Japan the bird on the rock, the Hó-ó, is a mythological animal and a symbol of wisdom, strength and also an inhabitant of the Buddhist Paradise. According to legend it would perch only on a kiri-twig.

The break-up of the decoration into three panels divided by patterns derives from the kraak style. (Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, p.107)

This covered jar might have originally been part of garniture consisting of three covered oviform-shaped jars and two cylindrical beaker vases with spreading mouths. They were very popular in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe where they were used as decorative items in the interior. Large garnitures could only be afforded by the nobility and well to do who displayed them in the representative rooms and galleries of their palaces and country houses. They were often placed on specially made pedestals or were mounted and functioned as exotic eyecatchers. Placed inside the fireplace they hid the blackened wall from view in summer and filled with sand, these jars were used as extinguishers near fire-places. (Hartog 1990, p.130, cat 158)

The origin of the five-piece set has not been established yet but it seems logical to look to China, which influenced Japanese export wares in so many ways. Transitional pieces, including large covered jars with an enamelled decoration, reached The Netherlands in the 1640s, and clearly had a decorative function in the Dutch Interior. When Chinese production waned, the Japanese took over and from the late 17th century started to make similar jars and beakers in underglaze blue to order for the Dutch. Then, suddenly, they were no longer single objects but parts of five-piece sets. Large scale porcelain production for export was resumed in China in the early 1680s and many new shapes emerged. Apparently, the garniture set was among them. What exactly triggered the change from the single vase or beaker to a set is not known. Japanese covered jars decorated in underglaze blue usually show Chinese elements such as phoenixes, large flowering plants, rocks, and sometimes figures in a landscape setting. Most jars are globular or oviform. They reflect the relatively rare hexagonal and octagonal Chinese pieces, in particular the Transitional jars of the 1640's. The Chinese had stopped producing polygonal jars in the middle of the 17th century. This Japanese preference for any-sided pieces is also apparent in the shape of dishes, saucers and bowls made for export from the late 17th century onwards. Covers of jars are domed and often quite high. The knobs are large and either flattened, round or pear-shaped and rarely facetted as is the case with this jar It is interesting to note that the decoration on the Arita pieces does not imitate some of the specific Chinese Kangxi patterns, such as the characteristic division in bands of panels but show two or three wide panels filled with motifs taken from nature or a free-flowing composition all over the surface. Complete blue-and-white garnitures are extremely rare nowadays, and most existing single vases or jars might in fact have been part of such a set. When the five-piece sets became popular, the blue-and-white pieces were largely replaced by their polychrome (Imari) counterparts. (Hartog 1990, p.130, cat 158), (Jörg 2003/1, pp.259-260)

These type of large covered jars may be considered as a form of Japanese 'Chinoiserie' for the European market. In Japan larger covered jars of this kind were called chinkô tsubo (aloe jar), presumably because aromatic substances such as wood were transported in these jars by the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC), from South East Asia to Europe. (Ströber 2001, pp.156-157, cat. 69)

For identically shaped and similarly decorated covered jars, please see:

Condition:

Jar: A firing flaw to the inner footring and two restored spots to the mouthrim, one with a connected hairline.

Cover: Restored.

References:

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1971, p.52 & cat. 139 & 140

Reichel 1981, cat. 5

Stamford 1981, cat. 52

Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, cat. 54

Hartog 1990, cat 158

Ströber 2001, cat. 69

Jörg 2003/1, pp.259-260

Kyushu 2003, cat. 1804

Price: Sold.