A Japanese Arita blue and white bottle. Edo, ca. 1660/1680
The square-section body decorated in underglaze blue with a bouquet of roses, figures with fans in a landscape, flowering chrysanthemum and a man carrying two buckets in a mountainous river landscape, the shoulder with stylised flowers and leafy tendrils, the neck with a silver mount.
- Country:
- Japan
- Period :
- Edo, ca. 1660-1680
- Material:
- Porcelain
- Dimension:
- 5.70 in. (14,5 cm)
- Reference :
- D960
- Status:
- sold
Related works
An identical bottle is in the collections of the Musée de Sèvres (France) and illustrated by Christine Shimizu in La Porcelaine Japonaise, Editions Massin, 2002, p. 82.
Another bottle is in the collections of the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics, Leeuwarden (The Netherlands).
Another bottle is in the collections of the Rijkmuseum (inventory number AK-RBK-1972-198-B).
See Pr. Christiaan Jörg, Fine & Curious, Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, p.174, no.209 for a related but smaller bottle.
See J. Ayers, & O. Impey, Porcelain for Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750, p.108, no.56 for a flask with comparable decoration.
The authors explain that these square bottles were based on Western glass models and the larger ones were used to store gin, and the decoration shows influences of Chinese Transitional porcelain, such as the symmetrical flowers.
Photography Jérémie Beylard / Agence PHAR
