Recent Acquisitions
On this page you'll find my latest acquisitions, It may, however, take some time for all objects to load.
This way you can quickly browse through my recently acquired objects without having to browse through all the various categories.
After four weeks each object in 'Recent Acquisitions' will be moved to their specific category.
Latest updates:
Recent Acquisitions; May 20, 2022.
Chinese wares over-decorated in the West 1700-1800 - Dutch over-decorated wares Amsterdams Bont - Other Designs
Object 2011978
Dish
China
1730-1750, over-decorated in the Netherlands, Amsterdams Bont, c.1730-1760
Height 25 mm (0.98 inch), diameter of rim 216 mm (8.50 inch), diameter of footring 120 mm (4.72 inch), weight 336 grams (11.85 ounce (oz.))
Dish on footring, flat rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with a flowering peony tree growing from taihu (pierced garden) rocks near a fence and a bird in flight. Round the the rim a trellis-pattern border. Over-decorated in the centre with iron-red, black and green overglaze enamel, in the Netherlands, Amsterdams Bont, c.1730-1760. Around the rim reserves filled with a diaper ground and half flower heads flanked by leafy scrolls. The reverse is undecorated.
Condition: Various fleabites and a chip to the rim. A chip to the inner footring.
Price: Sold.
Japanese Blue and White wares 17th Century - Dishes
Object 2011791
Dish
Japan, Arita presumably Sarugawa
1670-1690
Height 67 mm (2.64 inch), diameter of rim 369 mm (14.53 inch), diameter of footring 185 mm (7.28 inch), weight 1,867 grams (65.85 ounce (oz.))
Dish on footring, flat rim. Decorated in underglaze blue in the style of Chinese kraak porcelain. In the centre a decoration of two branches with fruit, one with pomegranates the other with finger-lemon fruit also called 'Buddha's-Hand citron' (Citrus medica). The sides divided into panels filled with stylised peonies and precious objects alternating with narrower panels of florets. The reverse is undecorated.
The pomegranate and Buddha's Hand citron (Citrus medica) symbolically represent fertility and happiness, together with the peach (longevity) they are being named 'The three Abundances'. (Arts 1983, p.140)
Although the border division copies kraak porcelain, the decoration of the two large branches filling the centre seems to be based on Chinese prototypes of the later Transitional-early Kangxi period. The Japanese potter combined two styles to create a hybrid, fashionable Japanese novelty. Dishes and plates of this design which were apparently popular, were made in different sizes. (Jörg 2003/1, p.28)
For identically decorated dishes, please see:
- Japans porselein met blauwe decoraties uit de tweede helft van de zeventiende en de eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, in, Mededelingenblad Nederlandse Vereniging van Vrienden van de Ceramiek, vols. 64/65, 1971), p.54, cat. 8.
- Oriental Ceramics at the Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795. An account of the porcelain trade of the Dutch East India Company with particular reference to ceramics with the V.O.C. monogram, the Cape Market and South African Collections, (C.S. Woodward, Cape Town & Rotterdam, 1974), pp.20-21, cat. 26(b).
- Japanese Porcelain, (S. Jenyns, Faber & Faber, London / Boston, 1979), cat. 16a.
- Pronken met Oosters porselein, exhibition catalogue Gemeente Museum Arnhem, (S. Hartog, Waanders, Zwolle 1990), p.128, cat. 153.
- Mistrovská dĩla Japonského porcelánu / Masterpieces of Japanese Porcelain, (F. Suchomel, Prague 1997), p.77, cat. 25.
- Ceramics crossed overseas. Jingdezhen, Imari and Delft from the Collection of the Groninger Museum, (C.J.A. Jörg et al., Tokyo, 1999), p.30, cat. 27.
- Japanese Export Porcelain. Catalogue of the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, (O. Impey, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2002), p.109, cat. 128.
- Complete Catalogue of the Shibata Collection, (The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Kyushu 2003), p.332, cat. 2595.
- Fine & Curious: Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2003), p.28, cat. 8.
Condition: Some firing flaws to the front and reverse side.
References:
Lunsingh Scheurleer 1971, cat. 8
Price: € 699 - $ 728 - £ 594
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Blue and White Kangxi Period 1662-1722 - Miniature Doll's House Vases
Object 2010694
A double gourd miniature "doll's house" vase
China
1700-1720
Height 53 mm (2.09 inch), diameter 31 mm (1.22 inch), diameter of mouthrim 6 mm (0.24 inch), diameter of footring 13 mm (0.51 inch), weight 22 grams (0.78 ounce (oz.))
A double-gourd miniature "doll's house" vase on footring. Decorated in underglaze blue with flowering plants and an insect in flight. on the shoulder a zig-zag lines pattern border. Around the neck two flower sprays.
At the beginning of the 18th century, there was a fashion among wealthy Dutch ladies to have models made on the scale of a house, the so called "doll's houses". The rooms of these doll's houses were furnished with miniature pieces of porcelain, furniture, paintings, upholstery and all other sorts of objects that would have belonged to the interior of a wealthy home. These doll's houses were very costly and certainly not meant for children to play with but were proudly displayed for friends and visitors and regarded as extremely luxurious items - counterparts of the cabinets of curiosities that were a fashionable hobby of rich men. Only a few of these doll's houses have been preserved. One example can be found in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague showing an 18th century room with porcelain miniatures in cupboards and on brackets along the wall. In reality the majority of these "miniature doll's house vases" would have been part of the interior. A good example of an authentic porcelain room is the famous cabinet in Pommersfelden Castle, Germany, where groups of pieces on brackets are surrounded by these miniature vases lining the borders of the consoles. (Jörg & Flecker 2001, pp.50-51)
It was a popular pastime for the ladies of the Dutch patrician society to furnish doll's houses, whose various rooms reflected those of their own town palaces. Apart from the usual furniture, miniature versions of exotic luxury goods such as porcelain, fabrics, carpets and lacquer were obligatory. The doll's house of Petronella Oortman, now in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and that of Lita de Ranitz in the Historical Museum of the Hague are considered to be the most prominent examples. The Chinese had produced miniature ceramics for almost one thousand years for the decoration of birdcages, therefore it was no problem for them to supply the Dutch with doll's house porcelain. Miniature pieces were also displayed in ordinary porcelain rooms in cupboards and on brackets along the wall. (Suebsman 2019, p.76)
Among the ceramic cargo of the Ca Mau shipwreck (1725) identical shaped miniature doll's house vases decorated with stylised flowers and foliage within fine borders were found. (Amsterdam 2007, p.186)
Condition: Perfect.
References:
Price: € 149 - $ 157 - £ 127
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Japanese Imari 1690-1800 - Tableware and other Porcelain with Western Shapes
Object 2011975
Shaving bowl
Japan
1700-1730
Height 71 mm (2.80 inch), diameter of rim 164 mm (6.46 inch), diameter of footring 100 mm (3.94 inch), weight 937 grams (33.05 ounce (oz.))
Shaving bowl on high footring. Flat rim with a saved semi-circular section and two small holes opposite the cut-out section. Decorated in underglaze blue and overglaze iron-red, black, aubergine and yellow enamel with a central design of a flower pot on a low table on a terrace filled with flowering plants encircled by intertwined leaves. In the middle in the glaze, a large ring was, supposed to be, left unglazed but is glazed. On the rim three reserves each outlined with leafy scrolls alternating with branches of a flowering tree. On the reverse two wide spread prunus sprays.
Shaving bowls were used by barbers and were indispensable in the Dutch household too. They were made of earthenware, pewter, copper and even silver. They had an alternative use namely, to let blood from a vein in the arm during blood-letting, a medical procedure thought to drain bad blood from the system also performed by the barber/surgeon. In the seventeenth century, regulations were put in place in England to govern what barbers were permitted to do. Thus the became confined to bloodletting and treating external diseases. In Prussia the barbers' and the surgeons' guild joined in 1779, and it was said of great Prussian surgeons that they had risen "up from the barber's bowl'. Both purposes explain the semi-circular saving. The two holes are for a cord used to suspend it from the client's neck to catch lather and water during shaving, or to hang the bowl on the wall thus implying that owners also appreciated the bowl for its decorative value as well as its function. Chinese shaving bowls usually have the holes in the footring while Japanese examples have them in the rim. (Jörg 2003/1, p.184), (Sargent 2012, p.189)
Most shaving basins are decorated in Imari, but this example was made in one of the smaller kilns which used a different technique, in which the objects were stacked on to each other in the oven while in the middle of the shaving basin, in the glaze, a large ring was left unglazed in order to prevent that the objects would stick to each other during the firing process. That ring is sometimes quite visible, on this object it is subtly hidden in the decoration in enamel colours. (source: Fraeylema Nieuws, number 52, September 2015)
Condition: Various firing flaws to the reverse and a tiny fleabite to one of the corners of the cut-out section.
References:
Fraeylema Nieuws, number 52, September 2015
Price: € 799 - $ 842 - £ 670
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Chine de commande – Armorial / Pseudo-Armorial wares 1700-1800 - Armorial
Object 2012454
Saucer
China
1750-1760
Height 21 mm (8.83 inch), diameter of rim 115 mm (4.53 inch), diameter of footring 69 mm (2.72 inch), weight 59 grams (2.08 ounce (oz.))
Saucer on footring, straight rim. Decorated in encre de Chine (grisaille), iron-red, gold and blue enamel with a yet unknown coat of arms: the arms are quarterly, 1. and 4. a pegasus, 2. and 3. two bars. The crest a pegasus on top of coronet. The mantling comprise symmetrical scrollwork and ropes of pearls in European style. Round the rim strapwork in Du Paquier style. The reverse is undecorated.
Saucer, part of a tea service of which15 pieces were sold at Sotheby's Amsterdam in 1994 comprising a teapot, milk jug , sugar bowl with cover, a teapot stand, a saucer dish, five tea cups and five saucers. In addition to the illustrated saucer, one other turned up in a private collection and two milk jugs of h. 13.3 cm were sold at Christie's London in 1999. The arms have been incorrectly attributed to the Stapert family from Friesland. They are probably the arms of a Frisian or East Frisian family: in the Amsterdam 1994 sale two other lots in the same section - and possibly from the same collection or collector - comprised porcelain with Frisian and East Frisian arms, such as De Pottere and Van Wingene. (Kroes 2007, pp.532-533)
For this specific saucer, please see:
Condition: Some popped bubbles of glaze, caused by the firing process, a fleabite, a short hairline and two frits one with a short connected hairline all to the rim.
Reference:
Price: € 999 - $ 1,080 - £ 835
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Blue and White wares since 1722
Object 2012467
Vase
China
c.1740-60
Height 163 mm (2.84 inch), dimensions foot 55 mm (2.17 inch) x 55 mm (2.17 inch), dimensions belly 65 mm (5.56 inch) x 65 mm (2.56 inch), dimensions mouth 28 mm (1.10 inch) mm x 28 mm (1.10 inch), weight 270 grams (9.52 ounce (oz.))
Vase on square broad flat foot with recessed glazed center, the foot steeply tapering with straight sides to the body of the vase. The four sides spreading to the recessed shoulder which support the four sided neck ending in a everted square mouth. Decorated in underglaze blue with on the foot a lappet border with half flower heads on an underglaze blue ground. On the sides a scholar with a servant in a garden landscape with rocks, trees and plants alternating with a bird perched on a branch of a fruiting pomegranate tree. On the shoulder half flower heads on an underglaze blue ground and on the neck reserves filled with book rolls tied together with a knotted string and a large flower spay alternating with a fruiting spray and a large flower spray.
The vase is of an unusual shape that may have derived from a contemporary Chinese bronze vase. No comparable pieces could be traced in literature. It must have required special skills to make and must have been difficult to fire. The cracks and crackled glaze were was most likely caused by the shape after the firing during the cooling down process.
Condition: The glaze partly crackled and cracked due to the cooling down process after the firing probably caused by the unusual shape, some firing flaws and a fleabite to the outer rim.
Price: € 999 - $ 1,080 - £ 835
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Japanese Tea, Coffee and Chocolate wares 18th Century
Objects 2012455
Tea bowl and saucer
Japan
1700-1720
Height of tea bowl 41 mm (1.61 inch), diameter of rim 70 mm (2.76 inch), diameter of footring 23 mm (0.91 inch), weight 40 grams (1.41 ounce (oz.))
Height of saucer 21 mm (0.83 inch), diameter of rim 119 mm (4.69 inch), diameter of footring 63 mm (2.48 inch), weight 87 grams (3.07 ounce (oz.))
Tea bowl and saucer on footrings, straight sides with slightly flaring rims. Imari decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red, black, gold and various other overglaze enamel colours, with four fishermen, two in a boat and two walking with a running dog on a bridge near a village with trees, rocks, mountains, houses and a lighthouse with flags. In the background even more mountains with trees and houses. On the rim a zig-zag lines pattern border. On the reverse three flower sprays. The tea bowl is decorated en suite.
Earlier sold object 2012088, (not included in this sale/offer).
Jörg describes a saucer with a similar but historical more important decoration. On this Imari decorated saucer we see a scene with the same two fisherman who now are having a pick nick on a rocky river-bank with besides them a Hamper and a bottle inscribed with the Initials 'F.W'. A teacup with this rare decoration was donated by Pater Gratia Oriental Art to the collection of Oriental ceramics in the Groninger Museum in March 2012. (Jörg 2003/1, p.221)
For an identically shaped, sized and decorated earlier sold tea bowl and saucer, please see:
Condition:
Teacup: Some firing flaws and dull glaze to one side of the cup.
Saucer: Two firing flaws to the reverse rim.
Reference:
Price: Sold.
Japanese Imari 1690-1800
Object 2012457
Dish
Japan
1700-1720
Height 32 mm (1.26 inch), diameter 283 mm (11.14 inch), diameter of footring 152 mm (5.98 inch), weight 817 grams (28.82 ounce (oz.))
Dish on footring, flat rim. On the base six spur-marks. 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 a 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 with some firing flaws.
References:
Jörg 2003/1, cat. 21, cat. 21a & cat. 22
Price: Sold.
Shipwreck Porcelains - The Nanking Cargo, 1752
Object 2010C321
Teapot and cover
China
c.1751
Provenance: The Nanking Cargo sale, Christie's Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986
Height including the cover 145 mm (5.71 inch), diameter handle to spout 217 mm (8.54 inch), diameter of mouthrim 65 mm (2.56 inch), diameter of footring 62 mm (2.44 inch), weight with cover 518 grams (18.27 ounce (oz.)), weight cover 82 grams (2.89 ounce (oz.))
Teapot of globular shape on footring, straight spout with a curved C-shaped handle. Domed cover and pointed knob. Chinese Imari decorated in underglaze blue, and overglaze iron-red with willow issuing from rockwork on a terrace in the foreground and a simple retreat on a distant river bank below a narrow border of trellis pattern. The cover is decorated en suite. On the base the original Christie's The Nanking Cargo lot label and inside the cover the original Christie's The Nanking Cargo lot label with the number 21?? / 4 proving it has been one of 4 similar teapots and covers sold in lots 2173-2176 & 2189-2195. (Amsterdam 1986. p.91)
On Monday January 3, 1752, the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) ship Geldermalsen, struck a reef on her return journey to the Netherlands and sank in the South China Sea. Of the crew 32 survived and 80 went down with the ship and her cargo of tea, raw silk, textiles, dried wares, groceries, lacquer and porcelain.
The cargo of Chinese porcelain was originally potted in Jingdezhen, Jiangzi province then shipped to Nanking for delivery to the VOC vessel Geldermalsen for final transportation to the Netherlands. The Geldermalsen struck a reef on her return journey to the Netherlands and sank in the South China Sea on January 3, 1752. The cargo was recovered by Captain Michael Hatcher and his team in 1985 and sold by Christie's Amsterdam on 28 April - 2 May 1985 as 'The Nanking Cargo. Chinese Export Porcelain and Gold' two hundred and thirty-five years later. (Jörg 1986/1. pp.39-59).
An interesting detail is that Captain Michael Hatcher found the wreck of the Geldermalsen on the same reef as he earlier, in 1983, found the wreck of a Chinese junk. both wrecks were about a mile apart. This Chinese Junk wreck came to be known as "The Hatcher Junk" she had a cargo of Kraak and Transitional porcelain objects that were dated c.1643. (Sheaf & Kilburn 1988, p.27)
In comparison with the enormous number of tea cups there are remarkably few tea pots on board the Geldermalsen: according to the shipping invoice only 578. Hatcher has been able to recover 522. Was there little demand for tea pots at the time? Even more remarkable is the fact that sugar bowls and tea caddies are completely missing, as well as tea services. Probably the supply of previous years had caused a temporary saturation of the market.
The directors of the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC), the Heeren Zeventien had very strict requirements as regards tea pots: they should have a wide opening and a straight spout. The tea pots found in the wreck correspond to this description. There are two types. One has an ordinary handle, an upright rim and an arched lid with a knob. The decoration - plateau with fence, trees and flowering plants - is once again executed in three ways: in blue-and-white, in Imari and in enamel colours. The second - rarer - type has a pointed handle and a flat lid with a pear-shaped knob. We see here the same motif in blue-and-white and enamel colours. An Imari variety undoubtedly existed as well, but has not been recovered. Once more we are struck by the uniformity of the decoration: only one motif has been bought in. (Jörg 1986/1, p.71)
In total only 77 globular teapots of the first type decorated in blue and enamels (read Imari) were sold divided over the lots: 2171-2197. (Amsterdam 1986)
Tea pots are almost invariably associated with tea sets. The shipping documents mention no other elements of a tea set in the cargo (apart, of course, from the tea bowls, chocolate and coffee cups); but this was a five-year period, 1745-1750, during which the VOC inexplicably bought no fully composed tea sets. We can now extend the period to 1751. A tea set would normally also require a slop bowl, milk jug, one (or two) tea caddies, sugar bowl (for cut or ground cane sugar) and a spoon tray, The Geldermalsen carried none of these as Company wares, although a few of the accessories that one would expect were recovered in an extremely eroded condition: egg-shaped tea caddies, pear-shaped cream jugs and several spoon trays (both in hard paste and the less commonly found soft paste, a beige-coloured, lower-fired variant of normal Chinese porcelain), all presumably isolated 'private cargo'. (Sheaf & Kilburn 1988, p.142)
For an identically shaped, sized and decorated teapot, please see:
Condition: Two firing flaws to the cover and a glaze rough spot to the tip of the spout.
References:
Price: € 1.599 - $ 1,763 - £ 1,330
(the $ and £ prices are approximates and depend on the € price exchange rate)
Japanese Early Overglaze Enamelled wares 1660-1680
Object 2012450
Kendi
Japan
1660-1680
Height (with silver mount) 255 mm (10.04 inch), height (without silver mount) 200 mm (7.87 inch), diameter 142 mm (5.59 inch), diameter of mouthrim 45 mm (1.77 inch), diameter of footring 75 mm (2.95 inch), weight 793 grams (27.97 ounce (oz.))
Kendi on footring, a bulbous spout on the shoulder, cylindrical neck ending in a splayed mouth with overturned rim. Fitted with Indonesian silver mounts later. Decorated in early enamel style in green, iron-red, overglaze blue and yellow. On the sides two large panels with a river scene with rockwork, a house, drying fishing nets, pine trees and a large wide spread willow tree. A single blossom and tendrils between the panels. A broad red band round the shoulder, the neck decorated with two 'tulips' alternating with three dots in Chinese transitional style.
Although the Chinese had produced some enamelled transitional porcelain for the Dutch at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the public in the West largely associated Chinese porcelain with underglaze blue wares and was not aware of the polychrome types. The Japanese pieces, coloured with dark red, yellow, green, brown even gold and silver must have come as a great surprise to those who were sensitive to new and exotic things. A fashion was created, and right from the beginning enamelled wares formed a substantial part of all the Dutch East India Company (VOC) porcelain shipments from Japan.
Of course, there were also customers in Batavia and Holland who were more old-fashioned and preferred the traditional underglaze blue porcelains that they were used to. And there were others who demanded tableware in Western forms, a category that had been highly successful in Chinese transitional porcelain. Japanese potters, realizing the importance of the Dutch to their expanding industry, were eager to please all of these groups. Thus in the decades after 1660 the Artita kilns responded to Dutch demand for porcelains in three categories: enamelled wares, largely decorated in Japanese style; underglaze blue wares in an imitation of Chinese kraak and transitional porcelain; and commande porcelain copying Western shapes such as spittoons, mugs and ewers, Naturally, these categories overlapped. For instance there were dishes with kraak patterns done in overglaze enamels, which were destined not for the Netherlands but for the inter-Asian porcelain trade of the Dutch East India Company. And there were new forms like the kendi, modelled on a traditional South Asian water vessel, which was ordered for markets in Southeast Asia and was not part of the shipments to Holland. (Impey, Jörg & Mason 2009, pp.47-48)
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 Begal ordered from Deshima twenty large and small ghendi. The biggest market was South East Asia. In 1671 Chinese junks carried a consignment of 700 Japanese-made ghendi from Deshima to Batavia and another 600 in the following year.
A relatively large number of kendis and other pieces decorated in early enamels are known in the Netherlands. Many have an Indonesian provenance and were collected by their (former) owners when they lived in the Dutch East Indies. The mounts enhancing the shape of the overturned rim, indicate the value such pieces had in local Indonesian communities, where they were often regarded as pusaka, holy and venerated heirlooms. (Jörg 2003/1, pp.64-65)
For a nearly identically shaped, sized and decorated kendi, please see:
- Fine & Curious: Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2003), p.65, cat. 50.
- La voie du Imari. L'aventure des porcelaines à l'Époque Edo, (Y. Trousselle, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2008), p.142, cat. 148.
For other early enamel decorated kendis, please see:
- Fine & Curious: Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2003), p.64, cat. 49.
- Japanese Export Porcelain. Catalogue of the Collection of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, (O. Impey, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2002), pp.78-79, cat. 64-68.
Condition: Fine crazing to the glaze of and a firing tension hairline to the lower part of the kendi and a firing tension hairline to the base.
References:
Impey, Jörg & Mason 2009, pp.47-48
Price: Sold.
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