Recent Acquisitions
On this page you'll find my latest acquisitions.
This way you can quickly browse through my recently acquired objects without having to browse through all the various categories.
After some time, each object in 'Recent Acquisitions' will be moved to their specific category.
Latest update: Recent Acquisitions; May 20, 2026.
Japanese wares with Western Shapes or Designs 1653-1800
Object 2012725
Sand brick
Japan
1680-1700
Height 65 mm (2.56 inch), dimensions 135 mm (5.32 inch) x 55 mm (2.17 inch), weight 424 grams (14.96 ounce (oz.))
Sand brick of rectangular shape on a flat unglazed base. Hollow with three shallow domed top rows with small holes. Imari decorated, on the wide sides in, iron-red and yellow, aubergine, green, grey, black enamels and gold with a wide spread gnarled blossoming prunus growing from rockwork with small plants. On the smaller sides flowering bamboo plants growing from rockwork. Round the rim swirling clouds. The holes are square outlined in iron-red.
In the West, quill pens were used for writing and the ink was dried by dusting it with fine sand. A sander like this came with an matching inkstand. These type of writing sets will have been based on a European metal or earthenware model and must have been luxury items. The sand brick, which had to be filled from above, should not be confused with the later and much larger Chinese flower bricks. Apparently, such writing sets were only made in Arita and no Chinese examples are recorded. Curiously, the very few complete sets known have a particular kakiemon-style decoration. Sets must also have existed in underglaze blue and Imari, as is indicated by single examples of sand bricks and inkstands. (Jörg 2003/1, p.188)
For similarly shaped sand bricks, please see:
- Japanese Porcelain, (S. Jenyns, Faber & Faber, London / Boston, 1979), cat. 65Aii.
- Fine & Curious: Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2003), pp.188-189, cat. 234 & 235.
Another similarly shaped, sized and decorated sand brick is in an English private collection.
Condition: Overall fine crazing to the glaze, a chip to a corner and a fleabite to a hole.
References:
Price: Sold.
Japanese wares with Western Shapes or Designs 1653-1800
Object 2012658
Shaving bowl with matching ewer
Japan
1700-1720
Height shaving bowl 101 mm (3.97 inch), dimensions rim 345 mm (13.58 inch) x 280 mm (11.02 inch), dimensions footring 157 mm (6.18 inch) x 127 mm (5.00 inch), weight 1.754 grams (61.87 ounce (oz.))
Height ewer 183 mm (7.20 inch), diameter mouthrim 110 mm (4.33 inch), diameter footring 92 mm (3.62 inch), weight 933 grams (35.03 ounce (oz.))
Oval shaving bowl, spreading flat rim with a semicircular section saved in the lower part In the basin. A ring in low relief to fit the matching ewer. Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red and gold with a flowering peony spray in the central ring in low relief flanked by wide spread flowering peony and chrysanthemum sprays tied with a ribbon with tassels. On the rim flowering peony and chrysanthemum sprays in wavy shaped panels and flowering plants in onion shaped panels flanked by flowerheads on a golden ground. The pitcher is decorated en suite.
Shaving bowls were used by barbers and were indispensable in the Dutch household too. They were made of earthenware, pewter, copper and even silver. They had an alternative use namely, to let blood from a vein in the arm during blood-letting, a medical procedure thought to drain bad blood from the system also performed by the barber/surgeon. In the seventeenth century, regulations were put in place in England to govern what barbers were permitted to do. Thus the became confined to bloodletting and treating external diseases. In Prussia the barbers' and the surgeons' guild joined in 1779, and it was said of great Prussian surgeons that they had risen "up from the barber's bowl'. Both purposes explain the semi-circular saving. The two holes are for a cord used to suspend it from the client's neck to catch lather and water during shaving, or to hang the bowl on the wall thus implying that owners also appreciated the bowl for its decorative value as well as its function. Chinese shaving bowls usually have the holes in the footring while Japanese examples have them in the rim. (Jörg 2003/1, p.184), (Sargent 2012, p.189)
These forms have also been called shaving basins as well as Mambrino's helmets, a name that comes from Cervante's novel The Life and Achievements of Don Quixote de la Mancha, in which the title character uses the bowl of the barber Mambrino as a helmet. (Sargent 2012, p.189)
The ewer is a close copy of similar European metal of faience ewers produced in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. (Jörg 2011/2, p.150)
Condition: A small chip to the underside of the edge of the semicircular section.
References:
Price: Sold.
Chinese Imari 1700-1800 - Tea, Coffe and Chocolate wares
Object 2012691
Saucer
China
1730-1750
Height 21 mm (0.83 inch), diameter of rim 113 mm (4.45 inch), diameter of footring 57 mm (2.24 inch), weight 69 grams (2.43 ounce (oz.))
Saucer on footring, slightly everted rim. Chinese Imari, decorated in underglaze blue, overglaze iron-red and gold with a seated figure with a walking cane and a clearly European appearance, hair style and clothing, in the background a fence with flowering plants.
Sotheby's Ca Mau Shipwreck, circa 1725, auction sale catalogue shows an illustration intended to provide instructions for the Chinese porcelain painters on the ways and appearance of unfamiliar foreigners. The foreigner depicted on this saucer is clearly such an unfamiliar (European) foreigner. (Amsterdam 2007, pp.213-214)
Condition: Some glaze rough spots to the rim.
Reference:
Price: € 249 Currency Converter
Japanese Tea, Coffee and Chocolate wares 18th Century
Object 2011287
Tea bowl and saucer
Japan
1700-1730
Height of tea bowl 40 mm (1.57 inch), diameter of rim 62 mm (2.44 inch), diameter of footring 25 mm (0.98 inch), weight 40 grams (1.41 ounce (oz.))
Height of saucer 22 mm (0.87 inch), diameter of rim 113 mm (4.45 inch), diameter of footring 48 mm (1.89 inch), weight 83 grams (2.93 ounce (oz.))
Tea bowl and saucer on footrings with spreading sides with slightly flaring rims. Imari decorated in underglaze blue and gold with a flowerpot filled with flowering cherry stems in a central roundel. On the sides three reserves filled with a bird in flight amongst flowering plants an leafy branches, alternating with a leafy flowering chrysanthemum stem in gold on an underglaze blue ground. The tea bowl is decorated en suite.
Condition: The footring of the tea bowl with glazed firing flaws.
Price: € 149 Currency Converter
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