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2011845

Sold Ceramics - Sold Japanese Imari 1690-1800 - Tableware and other Porcelain with Western Shapes - Page 1

Object 2011845

Cuspidor

Japan

1700-1730

Height 38 mm (1.49 inch), diameter of rim 197 mm (7.76 inch), diameter of footring 135 mm (5.31 inch), weight 431 grams (15.20 ounce (oz.))

Cuspidor on footring. Globular body with curved handle. Very short narrow neck, the upper part shaped as a bowl with wide flaring sides. Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red and gold. On the body two flower sprays, inside the upper part a gnarled blossoming cherry branch. The reverse is undecorated. (Jörg 2003/1, p.167, cat. 195)

Cuspidors were indispensable in the interior especially in the East Indies where both tobacco and betel nuts were chewed. Volker mentions Japanese porcelain and copper cuspidors in the lodges of the merchants on Deshima for 1701 and 1702. Dutch metal or earthenware cuspidors will have served as models, although the same shape has been known in Chinese ceramics since the Tang period, serving as a vase for a lotus flower. Interestingly, the VOC documents make no mention of Company shipments or orders for cuspidors, and they must therefore have been shipped privately. (Volker 1959, pp.28-29)

For a identically shaped sized and decorated Cuspidors, please see;

• Imari. Porcelain for European Palaces from the Freda and Ralph Lupin Collection. (L. Rotondo-McCord & P.J. Bufton, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans 1997), p.41, cat. 23.
• Fine & Curious. Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2003), p.167, cat. 195.

Condition: A tiny firing flaw to the rim.

References:

Volker 1959, pp.28-29

Rotondo-McCord 1997, cat. 23

Jörg 2003/1, cat. 195 

Price: Sold.

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