Sold Ceramics
Sold Ceramics - Sold Japanese Imari 1690-1800 - Imari with no Underglaze Blue, Iron-red and Gold only - Page 1
Objects 2010251 and 2010252
Two saucers
Japan
1690-1720
2010251: Height 21 mm (0.83 inch), diameter of rim 108 mm (4.25 inch), diameter of footring 49 mm (1.93 inch), weight 71 grams (2.51 ounce (oz.))
2010252: Height 20 mm (0.79 inch), diameter of rim 110 mm (4.33 inch), diameter of footring 48 mm (1.89 inch), weight 68 grams (2.40 ounce (oz.))
Two saucers on footrings, slightly everted rims. Imari decorated in overglaze iron-red and gold with a flowering wisteria and two quails near a shore. The reverses are undecorated.
The quail, closely allied to the partridge, is an emblem of courage both in China and Japan, as it is highly esteemed as a fighting bird. In North China people made these birds fight under a basket, where millet first had been strewn to make them jealous. Moreover, quails are believed to change into pheasants eventually. On Japanese porcelain they are frequently depicted amidst autumn grasses under millet. This quail and millet design, symbolizing the autumn is especially common on Kakiemon, but is also found on ko Kutani, Imari and blue-and-white wares. It has been suggested that that particular form is copied from the work of the painter Tosa Mitsuoki (1607-1691), but it probably originated from Chinese paintings of the Sung period. This motif has been copied on European porcelain, especially at Bow and Chelsea, where it is used as a decoration on the so-called 'partridge plates', and also on Meissen porcelain. (Arts 1983, pp.134-135)
Condition:
2010251: A frit to the rim and a few chips to the inner footring.
2010252: A glaze hairline to the exterior wall.
References:
Price: Sold.
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