An elaborated decorated small Japanese Satsuma vase formed in the shape of a small handlded bucket. It is decorated with six reserves - groups of court ladies on two sides - and one each of a court lady and a priest on the sides of the handles. The rest of the piece is decorated with intricate geometric designs in raised gold. The piece measures 3 5/8" high to the top of the handle and is 2" diameter at its widest. There is a signature with the classic cross in a circle Satsuma mark - the res... Click for details
One of Japan's most unique and prolific ceramic artists is Kyoto's Fujihira Shin(b.1922). He has essayed some of the most charming, intriguing, and of 'another world' ceramic pieces during his long career. He's been honored with museum retrospective exhibitions at Musee Tomo in Tokyo and Paramita in Mie museums and issue no.76(2003) of Honoho Geijutsu was devoted to him. His honors and exhibitions are too long to list here, suffice to say he is a major, eclectic ceramic artist. More about him an... Click for details
Mizusashi in the shape of a Chinese boy, holding Hotei’s large bag. Over brownish beige very fine stoneware a layer of mottled brown glaze, over which a blue-green finely crackled flambé dripping glaze. The inside with brown mottled glaze, the bottom left free. In the bottom the impressed mark in an oval cartouche of Kato Shuntai. Japan, 19th century.
Height: 3 ¼ in.; diameter: 6 in. (8.3; 15.2 cm) ... Click for details
Gourd shaped ewer or water dropper. Cream colored stoneware with finely crackled clear glaze, on which a decoration of blossoms and lucky symbols along a meandering stream between mountains in red, green, blue, yellow, aubergine enamels and gold. Kyo yaki, or Kyoto Satsuma. Japan, 19th century. The stopper is missing.
Height 4 7/8 inches (12.3 cm).... Click for details
A Japanese Hirado porcelain netsuke of a shi shi with his paws on a ball - soft details. It is definitely believed to be Hirado because of the expected slight orange kiln burn on the edges of the unglazed base where the glaze ends. The netsuke measures 1 3/8" long by 7/8" thick by 1 1/2" high. Late Meiji period circa 1900-1915.
A fine Japanese blue and white dish decorated in underglaze blue with a design of a butterfly amongst four different flowers. The edge of the dish has a very low relief molded design of plum blossom flowers. There is a fuku mark on the foot meaning Good Luck. There are also the three pottery spur marks characteristic of early Japanese ceramics - used to hold the dish up off the bottom of the kiln for equal firing on all sides. We date the piece to the late Edo to early Meiji period, circa 1850-1... Click for details
Nita
A ring of skulls playfully sojourn on the front of this rather unusual deep Edo Karatsu Chawan. On back another pair tumble helplessly over the thick speckled glaze. The base is bare earth, dark and shiny with age and handling. The skulls are not just resist painted on, but are actually incised, the eyes and nostrils set deep into the southern clay. The bowl is 3-1/2 inches (8.5 cm) tall, roughly 4 inches (10.5 cm) diameter and is in excellent condition, enclosed in a wooden box.
This unique 19th century Seto porcelain dish in geometric form and contrasting glazes is signed by the sometsuke master Kato Gosuke IV (1839-1905). It dates from the late Edo to early Meiji period. The shape is most unusual, made to resemble a partially unfolded piece of fabric or paper. The top section is beautifully hand painted with a bright, freely drawn underglaze blue foliate paulownia leaf pattern and broken ring design. There are five underglaze blue imperial sixteen petal chrysanthemum ... Click for details
A fine 17th-18th century Kutsugata E-Shino Chawan, the pitted white glaze decorated pell-mell with slashes of gray outside, and what intimates three tumbling balls of yarn within. Two excellent dark gold repairs glint on the inner rim, a testament to age and use equaling the dark color filling the perforated and crackled once white glaze. The large basin is roughly formed, the artists fingers dragging furrows into the sides and the thick shino glaze running in uneven drips both within and with... Click for details
