White porcelain dish decorated with underglaze cobalt blue and colored enamels in the Kakiémon style. Japanese work from the end of the 17th century around 1700. It seems to be a creation of the Arita kilns rather than those of Kakiemon because the blue is underglaze. But the exceptional quality begs the question. We know of only one example of porcelain bearing an absolutely identical decoration, it is a small bowl housed in the Baur museum in Geneva. Underside typical Fuku mark...

Small cast bronze incense burner. The cast iron is very thick. The object is very heavy. It is treated like Japanese Raku stoneware, leaving a pronounced rustic look. Do not think of an easier job, quite the contrary, the finish with a scraper of the bronze and the polishing are neat. Style very rarely used in ceramics. On the lid a shishi serves as a button. Below an indeciphered mark cast in hollow. Excellent very old bronze patina. Probably Japanese and surely 18° or before...

A beautiful example of an antique Shigaraki Tsubo (storage jar) Vase displaying classic Shigaraki markings of red ochre, pale and natural ash glaze.

This eye-catching tsubo dates back to the the beginning of the 17th century, early Edo Period (1603-1868)...

One of a kind - a rare 17th century Kiyomizu Chawan with a wonderful thick and vivid hand painted Sakura scenery. Such old Kiyomizu items in perfect antique condition are very, very rare.

It comes with an antique wooden box.

Kyo ware/Kiyomizu ware are works of art that illustrate the scenery of the four seasons in Kyoto or feature drawings that bring good luck. A lot of the vessels are made by using the technique wherein the clay is baked once before being painted...

A magnificent Kogaratsu Katakuchi Chawan (Ko-Karatsu tea bowl with a pouring spout), fired between the Azushi Momoyama period (1573-1603) and the early stage of the Edo Period (1603-1868).

It is no exaggeration to say that this tea bowl needs to be described as a true museum quality piece of art.

Especially such old Karatsu bowls are rarely available in the version of a Katakuchi bowl. Essentially, it's a bowl with a spout...

Cut iron tsuba. Decor of dragons and sacred pearls. Inside the beads, tiny iron balls are mobile. The style is called Namban. This kind of tsuba is little represented without however being rare. But the model presented here is exceptionally of excellent quality. Indeed the blacksmith has cut out his pattern excessively finely like an iron lace. We do not know of a model with such thin wires cut at the extreme limit of the constraints of the metal...

Painting in ink, polychromy and gold on silk. The scene represents (several sennins) Taoist immortals with children or servants. In the background we can distinguish mountains more or less masked by golden clouds. In the center of the screen we can see Chokaro with his gourd, Chinnan with two dragons emerging from his alms bowl, and Tekkai leaning against his cane and pointing his finger at Jurojin who is mounted on a white crane...

EXCAVATED YAMAJAWAN 2pc.

Layered Japanese proto-pottery bowls stuck to each other in the kiln-firing, so-called 'Yamajawan' (Yama-Chawan / lit. 'Mountain tea bowl'), circa Kamakura-Muromachi period (1185-1573), approx. 15 x 15 x H 6cm (5.90 x 5.90 x 2.36in)...

A haunting Gohon Chawan repaired with a spiderweb of silver and gold enclosed in a box titled Gohon chawan annotated by the later Edo period tea master Kawakami Ihaku II (1789-1857). It is 14 x 12.5 x 8 cm (5-1/2 x 5 x 3-1/2 inches).

Namiamidabutsu sho (Praise to the name of Amiddha Buddha) is scrawled in faint verse down the upper right, while on the left is a warning, kono tori, minasama goyojin goyojin (all those on this path, be wary be wary…) The two scripts are separated by a grave marker at the base of which lies a skull and scattered bones among the unkempt dried grasses. A very unusual seal in the shape of a Buddhist ewer hugs the right edge. Early to mid Edo period in the style of Hakuin Eikaku (1686-1768)...

Exquisite repairs in overlapping gold wave designs on colored lacquer drape upon the rim of this 17th century chawan tea bowl. The white clay is covered with millet colored glaze upon which have been scrawled simple designs like the character for person (hito). The bowl is 10.5 x 10 x 6 cm (4-1/4 x 4 x 2-1/2 inches) and is in excellent condition, in a modern kiri-wood collectors’ box.

Antique Japanese scroll painting depicting a dead man being whisked away in a flaming carriage bound for hell. He is escorted by three demons brandishing weapons and pulling the cart through clouds of smoke. A section of the poem translates as "whether old or young, rich or poor [...] on the fiery carriage..." Painted and signed by the artist Kawamura Jakushi (1638-1707) with a verse possibly written by Banjisei. Kawamura Jakushi was closely associated with the powerful Ryuzoji Family in Sa...

Japanese antique Tsutsu chawan (tea bowl) with yellow crackle glaze. The bottom displays lovely glaze drips. Raku school, Kyoto. Very rare tea bowl. Evaluated by TZ Shiota (#12) in 1930's when the family inheritied the collection from their great grandfather.

Age: 17th century.

Dimensions: 4 1/4" high x 3 5/8" wide

Provenance: From the personal collection of Frederic Cheever Torrey (1864-1935), partner of Vickery, Atkins & Torrey, interior design firm and art g...

Cabinet in black lacquered wood. Decor of plants in gilding and mother-of-pearl inlay. The mounts are incised and gilded copper. Two doors conceal a series of drawers and a small door. The small handles of the drawers are in cast bronze as well as the handles. On the top is represented in mother-of-pearl Mount Fuji partly concealed by clouds. This type of lacquer called "Namban" was manufactured in Japan for export at the beginning of the 17th century, either at the end of Momoyama or at the ver...

An exceptional web of gold interspersed with nishiki-cloth patterned designs on gold lacquer fuses this once broken 16th-17th century Koro with ami-me net patterned solid silver lid. This was likely originally made as a tea cup, considering that the entire interior is glazed. Broken and reassembled using the Kintsugi gold technique and placing unusual patterns on the missing portions, this is an exceptional work of art. The silver lid was likely made when it was repaired and repurposed as an ...

Hard to find nowadays: fairly shoe shaped (kutsugata) tea bowl, made of light, coarse, unrefined Mino clay. The expertly thrown body was covered with a potter's knife in its shoulder and around the foot ring.

The brim of this bowl covered with a green copper oxide glaze and the lower part was left unglazed and decorated in iron oxide with buddhist wheel of law on two opposite sides over which finally a transparent ash glaze was applied. The wheels were additionally highlighted with...

Two small Blanc-de-Chine hand modelled porcelain figures dating to the Kangxi period. One showing a group with a beardy man besides two dancing ladies, standing on a floor with a hexagonal pattern. The other is a joss stick holder in the shape of a foo dog or Buddhist lion. Condition: some losses (one arm of a meiren and one ear of the animal), chips, hairlines, cracks, the figural group with traces of former coloring and firing defects. Dimension: height: c. 10 cm and 7 cm, 8 cm and 6.5 cm long...

Also known as "The Buddha of Immeasurable Light and Life,” here in this pre-Edo Buddhist painting we see Amida and his two assistant bodhisattvas, Seishi on the left (associated with wisdom and strength), and Kannon on the right (associated with compassion and mercy), descending from the Western Pure Land to welcome newly deceased believers into the realm of paradise. In this practice known as raigō, the faithful are transported via the small lotus pedestal the Kannon holds in his...