Recent Acquisitions
On this page you'll find my latest acquisitions.
This way you can quickly browse through my recently acquired objects without having to browse through all the various categories.
After some time, each object in 'Recent Acquisitions' will be moved to their specific category.
Latest update: Recent Acquisitions; February 24, 2026.
Chinese Imari 1700-1800 - Western Shapes
Object 2012693
Salt
China
1720-1740
Height 118 mm (4.65 inch), diameter of cup 82 mm (3.23 inch), dimensions of foot 75 mm (2.95 inch) x 72 mm (2.83 inch), weight 244 grams (8.61 ounce (oz.))
Cup-shaped salt on three inwards bending feet, the wide cup has a straight upright brown-edged rim (jia mangkou) rim, it rests on a bulbous extension with spirals in relief. Chinese Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red and gold with leaves on all three free, the bulbous extension in underglaze blue, the cup with a fenced terrace with pierced rocks and a large flowering peony plant alternating with a flowering lotus plant in between two ducks, one swimming the other in flight. Round the foot of the cup a diaper-pattern border and round the rim a diaper-pattern border with reserves filled with half flower heads. (Sargent 2012, p.183)
The principal benefit of a form such as this in porcelain would have been the possibility of adding coloured decoration that a metal version would not accommodate. It was probably made after a European original in silver, pewter or wood.
The VOC (Dutch East India Company) started to order Chinese porcelain in European shapes as early as 1634. Ewers, beer mugs, candlesticks, salts, mustard pots and other objects for the Dutch table were made after wooden models, which served as moulds for the Chinese potter, or were copied from Dutch glass, ceramic or metal equivalents. Such pieces may justly be called Chine de commande, as they were ordered specially by Western clients. The term also applies to porcelain with Western decorations.
Producing porcelain after models to the taste and needs of foreign customers was no novelty for the Chinese potters. Since the 14th century they had been making all kinds of special objects for the Persian, Indian, South-East Asian and other markets, and this new Western demand merely expanded the range of non-Chinese shapes.
In the late 17th and 18th century demand for Western shapes rapidly increased and Europeans became such important clients that several kilns in Jingdezhen came to specialise in 'Western' wares, probably making nothing else.
The constant changing demands of customers and the frequent ordering of new shapes made it necessary to provide the Chinese dealers with models. The Dutch and other European merchants supplied objects of earthenware, porcelain, silver, pewter or wood for that purpose, but it was also common practice to send drawings of the desired shapes. Literally hundreds of such drawn models were made in the West and handed over to the Chinese porcelain dealers in Canton with specifications regarding measurements, the number of pieces to be made and how they should be decorated. These middlemen then sent the drawings on to the factories in Jingdezhen, where they would have been thrown away after use, so that only a very few have by chance been preserved.
The European companies preferred to buy in bulk the basic, ordinary wares for which there was always a steady market. Pieces of an unusual Western shape or finer items such as coolers, ewers and basins, bough pots and covered jars were seldom bought. The costs of ordering these objects, the attention they needed and the small numbers the European market could absorb made them less interesting to the companies as merchandise. To the independent Western merchant, however, these considerations did not mater, while members of East Indiamen's crews filled their sea chests with exclusive porcelain in Western shapes.
Throughout history salt - and thus a salt cellar as well - has always been considered to be of great importance for a meal. It made food tastier and masked its spoilage, while it furthermore was also used to actually preserve food. All in all, salt was indeed simply seen as a basic necessity of life. It had to be imported for the Dutch market, for instance from Southern Europe or from the salt mines in Germany, which made it an expensive commodity. Moreover - due to its reference to the Biblical expression of Jesus calling his disciples the 'salt of the earth' - the use of salt has for centuries also been placed in a religious context.
At the dinner table salt was therefore commonly given a prominent place in especially for this purpose designed salt cellars, which particularly in the 17th century were rather large. Though commonly made of silver, pewter or ceramics, porcelain ones were at times also manufactured to order in China for the Dutch East India Company. Wooden salt containers were used as models. Around 1700 Chinese porcelain salt cellars were available in all kind of shapes, though by then their sizes were starting to decrease. In the course of the 18th century salt cellars continued to get smaller, less high and more angular. (source: The World at Home: Asian porcelain and Delft pottery held from 17 June 2017 to 10 March 2019 at the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands)
Condition: All three feet restored.
Reference:
Price: Sold.
Chine de commande - Armorial / Pseudo-Armorial wares 1700-1800 - Armorial - Dutch
Object 2012680
Saucer
China
c.1735-38
Height 20 mm (0.79 inch), diameter of rim 110 mm (4.33 inch), diameter of footring 65 mm (2.56 inch), weight 46 grams (1,62 ounce (oz.))
Saucer on footring, sixfold scalloped rim. Decorated in various overglaze black, gold, blue and green enamels, iron-red and gold with a coat of arms round the rim a lozenge diaper border in gold on a rouge de fer ground with a flowerbud-like or early spearhead border. On the reverse rim three groups of flower sprays with antiquities and round the rim a regular spearhead motif border.
The coat of arms shows:
Sable, on a chevron d’or three azure fleur-de-lys, above with two severed lion’s heads with red tongues facing each other and below a lion’s head facing forward with a ring in its mouth, all in gold. Two leopards as shield bearers, holding a crown. (in Dutch: in zwart een lage keper beladen met drie blauwe lelies, boven vergezeld van twee toegewende afgerukte leeuwenkoppen, rood getongd en beneden van een aanziende leeuwenkop, rood getongd, alles goud)
The Dutch coat of arms on this teacup and saucer are unidentified and unrecorded in literature (including J. Kroes’ Dutch armorial porcelain) until now. They belong to the ‘De la Faille’ family (also written: del la/della Faille).
Coat of arms de la /del la/della Faille family, drawing, HxW…inch,138 mm (4.43 inch) x 126 mm (4.96 inch) © Antiquariaat /antiquarian bookshop Van der Steur, Haarlem, the Netherlands.
The De la Faille family has its origin in Antwerp and already traded on the Levant in 1540, with some of its family members taking up residence in Venice. The family can still be found in Belgium today (until 1831 the southern part of the Netherlands) and belongs to the Belgian nobility.
The family split when after the fall of the city of Antwerp in 1585 some Protestant members emigrated to the Netherlands, more precise to Haarlem, Dordrecht and Leiden. In the late 17th century the family also took residence in the city of Delft.
Because of their prominence in Delft and Delft being one of the VOC Chambers, further research was done on these members of the De la Faille family.
The Delft connection starts with Bernardus de la Faille, who resided in The Hague (Dutch: Den Haag) nearby Delft; he was an accountant for the Stadtholder Maurice of Orange. He married Elisabeth Camerling from Delft in 1618.
His son, Johan de la Faille (1628-1713) already became a member of the City Council (Dutch: vroedschap) in Delft. As a supporter of stadtholder William III of Orange, he was appointed in 1672, the Year of Disaster after the First Stadtholderless Period, when the Dutch Republic was under threat of an invasion by the troops of King Louis XIV of France. He was also bailiff (Dutch: Schout) in Delft between 1680 and 1713. Johan de la Faille owned a famous curiosity cabinet, which was started by his grandfather and father, mainly consisting of sea shells as well as birds, Roman coins and medals, tapestries and paintings and interestingly also porcelains.
Portrait of Johan de la Faille(1628-1713), 1680s, member of the City Council (vroedschap) and Bailiff (schout) of Delft, Oil on copper, H x W 6 1/4 x 12 inch (41.3 x 30.5 cm),Jan Verkolje, signed on the butt of the rifle: Jan Verkolye 168(?)
© 2018 Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford Connecticut, US, object-id: 1982.36
Johan de la Faille married on 28th of January 1671 with Anna Margaretha Delff (1647–1715). The couple had four children: Johan Bernard, Cornelis, Abraham and Elisabeth.
His second son Cornelis (1674-1730) was the centre of an interesting story. In 1730 he became involved in the so-called ‘Sodomite Hysteria’ (Dutch: Sodomietenhysterie) in the Netherlands. Cornelis was homosexual, but in the elite circles of the time this was usually handled reasonably open-minded.
In 1730 however the Dutch Republic had just experienced an epizootic disease in its cattle population, while its dikes were threatened by shipworm. These circumstances had readied the minds of the Dutch for moral panics fuelled by Protestant preachers, because they saw this as evidence of God's wrath against homosexuals. This dangerous mind-set and an already present aversion against the clique of city rulers was pretty suddenly canalized in a violent outbreak of hate against homosexuals, which started in the city of Utrecht, after which a nationwide wave of prosecutions ensued. In a series of pamphlets and veil gossip a whole network of homosexual members of city councils across several Dutch cities, including the locations of the public houses they met, was outed and vilified. The government, pressured by the public outrage, now felt compelled to act.
Dozens of men were condemned to the gallows or drowned, and their remains were burned or casted into the sea, which attests to the dangerous atmosphere at the time.
Engraving, 180 mm (7.09 inch) x 280 mm (11.02 inch), 1730; Allegory, showing Justice in the centre, ‘glorified by the discovery of …severe Sin.’ [Dutch: ‘De geregtigheid verheerlijkt door het ontdekken der hooggaande zonde’].To the left an angel holding a banner showing the Biblical text ‘Men desisting from natural relations with women,’ Romans 1:27 [Dutch: ‘Mannen nalatende het gebruik der vrouwen’, Romeinen 1:27]. Time lifts the curtain to reveal homosexual gentlemen; the four chained women to their right represent Fornication, Lust, Avarice and Wantonness. On the background the cities of Sodom and Gomorra burning.
© National Prison Museum, Veenhuizen, the Netherlands, inv. nr. 05417645X
In Delft three ‘suspects’ were arrested. Fortunately, prime suspect Cornelis de la Faille had fled town just in time. He was convicted in absentia and all his possessions, including a large townhouse (Oude Delft 124), inherited from his mother, were confiscated.
Cornelis died in 1730 of natural causes; the family de la Faille however did not accept Cornelis’ conviction and started a trial at the High Court of Holland to regain their family possessions. When the homophobia finally died down the family won the court proceedings arguing that it was first and foremost a family affair in which the courts had no say at all, an argument which the court, consisting of fellow city elite members, was highly sensitive of.
Cornelis died in 1730 and his brothers Johan Bernard and Abraham both in 1729, which makes it unlikely any of them ordered this tea-and coffee set with their coat of arms, because this cup and saucer can actually be dated quite precisely due to the interesting fact that - apart from the coat of arms - it is identical to cups and saucers from the well-known Valckenier armorial tea- and coffee service, ordered by governor-general Adriaan Valckenier, dated 1735-38.
The back and sides of a Valckenier teacup and saucer, which further confirms that it is completely identical with de la Faille, are never shown, therefore an few rare pictures are also included in this description.
It is because of these never visible verte enamels in this part of the decoration, this Valckenier tea- and coffee service has sometimes been described in the past as ‘famille verte’ [Corbeiller 1974, p.88].
Teacup and saucer with the arms of Valckenier, c. 1735-38, cup H.3,7 cm (inch),D. 6,7 cm(inch), saucer 10,7 cm (inch), Private Collection, the Netherlands. (not included in this sale)
For more background information about this Valckenier tea-and coffee set, please see:
For more information about other Valckenier armorial services in general, please see:
The similarity with Valckenier of course begs the question whether there could be any connection between the two families. Further research revealed no family connection (e.g. through marriage). However, it became clear that at the same time Adriaan Valckenier was in Batavia, there were also at least two members of the De la Faille family present as part of the government of the Dutch Indies, working directly with him.
In 1701 Cornelis’ elder brother Johan Bernard (1672-1729) married with Anna Catharina van Heemskerck (1676-1723); the couple had no less than 8 children. One of Johan Bernard’s children was Bernard Jacob de la Faille (1709-1746), who went to Batavia in 1731 aboard the VOC ship ‘Spiering’ as a member of the Council of Justice (Dutch: Raad van Justitie) in Batavia [source: openarch.nl] He married Marie Gosewine in 1732.
Another was Mr. Cornelis Coenraad de la Faille (1710-1744), merchant and First Keeper of the Storage Rooms (Dutch: koopman en dispensier Provisiekamer) in Batavia in 1736. Presumably around that same time he married Magdalena Clara van Schagen, the daughter of Joan Paul van Schagen (1689-1746), who became director-general of the Indies in 1737, at the same time Adriaan Valckenier became governor-general. The couple had two daughters.
[source: Wijnaendts van Resandt, W., De gezaghebbers der Oost-Indische Compagnie op hare buiten-comptoiren in Azië, Amsterdam 1944, pp. 68-69]
Both De la Faille brothers could have ordered armorial porcelain because of their significant VOC functions in Batavia. The most likely of the two in this case however would be Cornelis Coenraad, because of his stronger connection to Adriaan Valckenier through his spouse whose father worked directly alongside Valckenier. Another indication could be the oval shape of the shield, which usually (although not exclusively) points to a married woman. Perhaps he ordered this armorial tea service when he married Magadalena van Schagen?
All in all, this hereto unknown Dutch armorial saucer provides a fascinating view not only into the De la Faille family history, but also into Dutch and Batavian history and the high society of the time.
For an identically shaped and decorated but smaller sized, earlier sold, tea bowl and saucer, please see:
Condition: Restored.
References:
De Nederlandsche Leeuw, jaargang 15 (1897), p. 191
Corbeiller 1974, pp. 86-88, no. 34, figs. 46-47
Kroes 2007, cat. 32 t/m 36, cat. 78,cat. 96 t/m 101
Wijnaendts van Resandt 1944, pp. 68-69
Price: Sold.
Japanese Imari 1690-1800
Object 2012710
Bowl
Japan
1690-1710
Height 144 mm (5.67 inch), diameter 310 mm (12.20 inch), diameter of footring 123 mm (4.84 inch), weight 2,184 grams (77.03 ounce (oz.))
Large bowl on footring, straight rim. Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, iron red, green, turquoise, aubergine, yellow and gold. In the centre a flowering peony spray with three buds in various stages of bloom in a double circle in underglaze blue. The sides with flowering cherry and prunus branches and scattered flower heads. On the footring a meandering pattern and round the footring a border with upturned spiky lotus leaves. The outside with three reserves filled a hõ-õ bird perched on a flowering peony branch with three buds in various stages of bloom. In between the panels grasses and flowering chrysanthemum plants growing from rockwork. Round the rim a continuous flowering scroll.
The cherry (Jap.: sakura) has played an important role in Chinese symbolic language from ancient times on. In Japan the cherry is regarded as the flower, along with the chrysanthemum. The 'land of the cherry blossom' is one of the names for Japan. The cherry in Japan is different from its European counterpart: the blossom is about twice as large but the fruits are very small and non-edible. It is because of its immaculate, pure white blossom that the cherry is esteemed so much in Japan, not because of its fruit. The cherry blossom is emblematic of purity of life and of the samurai spirit. This is derived from the fact that the petals of the cherry blossom leave their calix when still fresh, and twirling in the air (see the scattered flower heads inside the bowl), as if dancing and unmindful of their approaching end, show gaity and merriment before touching the ground, that will be their grave. Thus unlike all other flowers, whose flowers cling to their calix until they shrivel and rot, as if afraid to die, the cherry shows beauty to people. Similarly it may be said of the samurai, who when still in full vigour, was always ready to give his life for a good cause. On Japanese porcelain it is always the single-blossom variety that is depicted. it can be distinguished from plum blossom by the fact that its five petals have two distinct lobes (so that they are somewhat heart-shaped), while the petals of the plum-blossom are single-lobed and have a round top. (Arts 1983, p.141)
The flower of the plum tree (Jap.: ume) or the prunus is one of the flowers of the four seasons, among which it figures as the emblem of winter. It is regarded as an emblem of winter. It is regarded as an emblem of longevity because the flowers appear during winter on the leafless, lifeless-looking branches. This aspect of the plum is usually fairly accurately expressed when it is used as a decorative motif, since it is shown as an old tree trunk having straight slender branches with blossoms. The plum is, for the same reason, emblematic of female purity and in Japan it becomes symbolic for womanhood in general. This also explains the favourite combination of the Kakiemons of two pheasants and the plum (the so-called Joshua Reynolds pattern), the two pheasants being emblematic of maternal love.
The plum may further be used in the sense of 'often' and 'again', because of the same sound mei of the corresponding Chinese character. The plum blossom itself can easily be confused with the cherry blossom, but the plum is represented on Japanese porcelain with the characteristic branches, described above, it is usually quite clear whether a plum or a cherry is intended. The mon of the Maeda family is a plum. (Arts 1983, pp.151-152)
The hõ-õ bird is referred to in the literature as a phoenix, but this is incorrect. It is a mythical bird, originating from China [Feng huang], where it appears as a motif as early as the 2nd millennium BC, and whose appearance was an especially auspicious sign. It is a composite creature, whose composing elements vary, although in Japan it remains essentially a mixture between a cockerel, a pheasant and a bird of paradise. The Red Bird of the South originally quite a separate creature, sometimes later becomes confused with the hõ-õ bird. The Chinese association with the empress is occasionally relevant in Japan, The hõ-õ bird in a medallion form is an originally Chinese pictorial device that came to Japan as early as the 8th century and was adopted into the decorative repertoire. (Fitski 2011, p.158)
In China the chrysanthemum (Jap.:kiku), one of the Four Noble Plants, is generally associated with a life of ease and retirement from public office. Whether the chrysanthemum is indigenous to Japan or was introduced from China or Korea during the first centuries A.D. is not clear, but it became the national flower of Japan along with the cherry blossom. In art it has been used in Japan as a motif for all forms of decoration from the kamakura period (1185-1332) onwards.
Shono compares the different forms of chrysanthemum that appear on Chinese porcelain, Kakiemon and Imari, concluding that the chrysanthemum motifs on Kakiemon were derived from examples on Chinese T'ien-ch'i (1621-1627) porcelain, especially in those cases where they grow from rocks. The chrysanthemum-forms on Imari are somewhat more schematically painted and, if not alike those on Kakiemon, are said to be influenced by the decoration on K'ang-hsi porcelain. The chrysanthemum is used as a heraldic crest (mon) on several occasions. One of the Imperial crests is a chrysanthemum consisting of sixteen petals round a central calyx and the tips of sixteen others behind them, in a circle (kikumon). (Arts 1983, pp.143-145)
Although Japan has a history of mountains and rocks (Jap.: iwa) as sacred objects in the context of Shinto belief, rocks are probably Chinese in origin. Rocks are often used as a visual basis for plants in depictions on Chinese porcelain, paintings and illustrated books. (Fitski 2011, p.153)
In China the peony (Jap.: botan) is The King of Flowers and hence the flower of richness and importance and the emblem of Regal Power. It is also the emblem of love and affection and a symbol of feminine beauty. If full of flowers and green leaves, it is regarded as an omen of good fortune.
In Japan the peony does not rank as the flower in this way, although it is distributed and cultivated all over the country. It is, in fact, true to say that the importance of the peony in China is similar to that of the cherry blossom in Japan.
As a decorative motif on Japanese porcelain, the peony is copied from Chinese examples and may be met with on its own or in combination with butterflies, a lion, rocks and waterfalls or waves. (Arts 1983, pp.149-150)
For identically shaped, sized, and decorated bowls, please see:
- The Kyushu National Museum, The Kyuhaku collection.
- The Voyage of Old-Imari Porcelains, (Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Arita 2000), p.104, cat. 207.
A third identically shaped, sized and decorated bowl, found in England, is an English private collection.
Condition: A firing flaw and a frit to the rim.
References:
Arts 1983, p.141, pp.143-145 & pp.149-152
The Kyushu National Museum, The Kyuhaku collection
Price: Sold.
Shipwreck Porcelains - The Diana Cargo, 1817
Object 2010138
Bowl
China
c.1816
Provenance: The Diana Cargo sale, Christie's Amsterdam, 6-7 March 1995
Height 75 mm (2.95 inch), diameter of rim 168 mm (6.61 inch), diameter of footring 70 mm (2.76 inch)
Bowl on footring, straight sides and slightly flaring rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with writhing young chilongs (sea dragons) and flames. Marked on the base with a shop / seal mark, underglaze blue. On the bowl the original 'Christie's Diana Cargo March 1995' sale lot 1026/36 label proving it has been one of 36 similar bowls sold in lot 1026.
''The Diana'' was owned by Palmer and Co. a powerful Calcutta ship owner and was liscenced
by the English East India Company to sail from Calcutta or Madras to Canton, carrying cotton
and of course, opium, which was extremely lucrative. The ship would then return to India from
China, laden with silks, tea, preserved fruits and thousands of pieces of beautiful blue and white
porcelain.
Unfortunately The Diana was on one of these voyages when, on the 14th of March 1817, she hit
some rocks off the Straits of Malacca and sank. The wreck was identified and recovered in 1994
by Dorian Ball of Malaysian Historical Salvors.
Christie's auctioned the porcelain cargo in Amsterdam in March 1995.
In total 1272 graduated 'dragon' bowls, in various sizes, were sold divided over the lots: 1014-1041 & 1158-1187. (Amsterdam 1995)
For an indentically, shaped, sized and decorated, earlier sold, bowl, please see:
Condition: A firing flaw to the outer footring.
Reference:
Amsterdam 1995, lot 1014-1041 & 1158-1187
Price: € 199 Currency Converter
Japanese Tea, Coffee and Chocolate wares 18th Century
Object 2012692
Teapot
Japan
1700-1720
Height with cover 86 mm (3.39 inch), height without cover 61 mm (2.40 inch), diameter handle to spout 142 mm (5.59 inch), diameter of mouthrim 50 mm (1.97 inch), diameter of foot 50 mm (1.97 inch), weight with cover 224 grams (7.90 ounce (oz.)), weight cover 46 grams (1.62 ounce (oz.))
Globular pear-shaped teapot on footring, fluted body. Curved handle and a straight spout. Ribbed cover and knob. Imari decorated in iron-red and gold on the sides with grasses and flowering peony plants growing from a flowerpot on one side and grasses and flowering chrysanthemum plants growing from a flowerpot on the other side. On the handle a floret between scrolls and on the spout stylised spays. The cover is decorated en suite.
In category 36 'Coloured Imari with no underglaze blue, iron-red and gold only' of his Japanese export porcelain, Impey states that the implication of this singular restriction of palette, without the use of underglaze blue, is that these may be the product of a single enamelling workshop, but may or may not be the product of a single kiln. The restriction is probably one of choice, for it would hardly be cheaper, if at all, to use a wider range of enamels, and no cheaper to use underglaze blue. (Impey 2002, pp.220-221)
Condition: A firing tension hairline to the underside of the handle caused by the unequal contraction of the body and the glaze during cooling in the kiln after firing.
Reference:
Price: € 499 Currency Converter
Japanese Tea, Coffee and Chocolate wares 18th Century
Objects 2012687 & 2012688
Two saucers
Japan
1700-1720
2012687 Height 28 mm (1.10 inch), diameter of rim 126 mm (4.96 inch), diameter of footring 65 mm (2.56 inch), weight 113 grams (3.99 ounce (oz.))
2011998 Height of saucer 28 mm (1.10 inch), diameter of rim 125 mm (4.92 inch), diameter of footring 65 mm (2.56 inch), weight 122 grams (4.30 ounce (oz.))
Two saucers on footrings with everted rims. Imari decorated in underglaze blue, overglaze iron-red, green, yellow, light aubergine, black enamel and gold. In the centre a standing female figure, facing left, wearing a red kimono dress. She is standing in front of a closed zig-zag shaped garden fence, which reaches to her middle. To her right an open building with wooden roof, with a seated figure. In the foreground of this building a large cherry tree, with a curved trunk, branches and finely painted grains. The tree has red cherry blossoms. To the left of the central figure two birds flying above a fence from left to right. In the foreground some flowers growing from pierced rockwork. The rim is decorated with a dark blue border with golden scrollwork. The reverse is decorated with three stylized flowering plants. On the base a single concentric band.
These saucers belong to the so-called five colour Imari group (gosai). This colour scheme consists of red, green, purple (aubergine) and/or yellow enamels with gold and underglaze blue. Soame Jenyns proposes that the lavish use of golden detailing on the underglaze blue was perhaps meant to hide the imperfections caused by blurring in the firing, a common characteristic of Japanese porcelain. Arts states (he quotes Soame Jenyns on this) that landscapes and human figures are less commonly found on five colour Imari.
Suchomel illustrates an Imari bowl with lid decorated with a very similar blossoming cherry tree motif (sakura). The cherry blossom is regarded as the most important flower of Japan, together with the chrysanthemum. One of the names of Japan is in fact "land of the cherry blossom". The cherry blossom is emblematic of purity of life and the samurai spirit.
Jörg states that It is often not easy to distinguish between export and non-export wares, Imari was certainly not exclusively made for export. This particular type of Imari porcelain was highly esteemed in Japan. In this case, the existence of an identical decorated saucer in a Japanese collection could signify that these saucers were originally meant for the Japanese home market.
For this identically decorated saucer, please see:
Although the cups have roughly the same height and diameter, the diameter and the height of the saucers vary considerably (please see sizes above). Differences in measurements between the same plates or sets are not uncommon in Japanese porcelain. However, another interesting possibility is that the sets with small size saucers might have been used for serving tea while the larger versions were used for serving coffee.
Interestingly the design was also used for overdecorating in the Netherlands, 'Amsterdams Bont' in the early 18th century, Espir shows a plain white Chinese chocolate cup and saucer overdecorated 1708-1720 with the original Japanese design in a Kakiemon style, for this chocolate cup and saucer now in the collection of Augustus the Strong in Dresden and registered under the number P.O. (Porzellan Ostasien) 3159 please see:
- European Decoration on Oriental Porcelain 1700-1830, (H. Espir, Jorge Welsh Books, London, UK, 2005), p.61, cat 14.
- SKD Online collection, PO. 3159.
A very similar decorated small plate, again with a blossoming cherry tree, fenced garden and identical blue rim with golden scrollwork, however without the exceptional Japanese figures, is described in Impey’s 'Japanese Export Porcelain', cat. 330. Interestingly, he mentions that the Ashmolean Museum also has a Worcester cup and saucer of that same pattern in the Marshall collection.
Impey records a very similar decorated small plate, again with a blossoming cherry tree, fenced garden and identical blue rim with golden scrollwork, however without the exceptional Japanese figures. Interestingly, he mentions that the Ashmolean Museum also has a Worcester cup and saucer of that same pattern in the Marshall collection
Conditions:
2012687 Perfect.
2012688 Perfect.
References:
SKD Online collection, PO. 3159
Prices:
2012687: Sold.
2012688: Sold.
Japanese Imari 1690-1800 - Dishes
Object 2012699
Dish
Japan
First half 18th century
Height 40 mm (1.57 inch), diameter 285 mm (11.22 inch), diameter of footring 150 mm (5.91 inch), weight 922 grams (32.52 ounce (oz.))
Dish on footring, flat rim. On the base four spur-marks in a Y-pattern. Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red, gold and green, black, aubergine overglaze enamel with two superimposed shikishi filled with a chilon (sea-dragon). On the sides and rim shaped panels filled with a shishi alternating with Hó-ó birds in flight. In between the panels scrollwork in gold on an underglaze blue ground with chrysanthemum flower heads in iron-red. On the reverse two wide spread chrysanthemum flower sprays.
The superimposed squares represent shikishi, special Japanese papers used for painting or calligraphy. This shikishi pattern was originally used in Japan as a decoration design on moulded dishes with scalloped rims. (Jörg 2003/1, p.38, cat. 21)
In his Fine & Curious on page 40, cat. 22 Jörg shows an example of this shikishi design pattern.
Reproduced from: Fine & Curious. Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2003), p.40, cat. 22. This dish is not included in this sale/offer. (copyright in bibliographic data and images is held by the publisher or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved)
An identically shaped, sized and decorated dish is in the collection of oriental ceramics of the Groninger Museum, Groningen.
For examples of dishes decorated with this shikishi design pattern, please see:
- Fine & Curious. Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2003), pp.38-40, cat. 21 & 22.
- Complete Catalogue of the Shibata Collection, (The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Kyushu 2003), p.132, cat. 997 & 998.
Apparently the same shikishi design pattern was used on Delftware of c.1660-1680 proving that Japanese pieces with this design pattern were known in The Netherlands at that time. (Jörg 2003/1, p.38, cat. 21a)
An earlier sold identically shaped and similarly decorated Delftware of c.1660-1680 dish (object 2012203).
For an identically shaped and similarly decorated Dutch (Delftware) dish, please see;
- Fine & Curious. Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2003), p.38, cat. 21a.
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An earlier sold identically shaped and similarly Japanese Imari decorated dish (object 2012289).
Condition: Perfect.
References:
Jörg 2003/1, cat. 21, cat. 21a & cat. 22
Price: € 499 Currency Converter
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