A Rare Early Ko-Kutani Porcelain Dish

c.1650 - 1660

A Fine and Rare Ko-Kutani Dish c.1650 – 1660 from the Collection of Soame Jenyns, Deputy Keeper of Asian Antiquities, British Museum (1950-1968). This Ko-Kutani Dish was made at the Kutani Kilns, Enuma County, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The thickly potted dish raises slightly from the well, it has a shallow everted rim and sits on a thick foot with grit adhering to the inside of the footrim. The striking asymmetrical design consists of a fruiting vine with the lower section of the plant obscured by a brocaded fabric in a deep aubergine and black. The back has concentric rings in underglaze cobalt blue and seal mark to the base, perhaps one of the many versions of the Fuku mark. The blue-green glaze is thick, semi-matt and broadly crazed.

SOLD

Condition: Extensively crazed, one crack to the center, which looks like crazing, is visible on the back. There is a burst bubble near the grapes on the far left.
Size: Diameter 18.9 cm (7 1/2 inches)
Provenance: Soame Jenyns, Deputy Keeper of Asian Antiquities, British Museum (1950-1968) and thence by decent. Mr. Roger Soame Jenyns (1904-1976) was the foremost scholar of his generation in the arts of Japan and China. He was a discerning collector and a member of the British General Committee of the Royal Academy Exhibition 1935-1956. His books include Later Chinese Ceramics (1951) Ming Pottery and Porcelain (1953) Wares of the Transitional Period between Ming and the Ch'ing 1620-1683 (1955) Japanese Porcelain (1965) Japanese Pottery (1971) and (with Margaret Jourdain) Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century (1950). For more information see : Provenance ; Collectors, Dealers & Scholars : Chinese Ceramics in Britain & America (Roy Davids, Dominic Jellinek, Privately Printed, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9570148-0-0).
Stock number: 25784
References: See : Provenance ; Collectors, Dealers & Scholars : Chinese Ceramics in Britain & America (Roy Davids, Dominic Jellinek, Privately Printed, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9570148-0-0).

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Soame Jenyns, Deputy Keeper of Asian Antiquities, British Museum (1950-1968) and thence by decent. Mr. Roger Soame Jenyns (1904-1976) was the foremost scholar of his generation in the arts of Japan and China. He was a discerning collector and a member of the British General Committee of the Royal Academy Exhibition 1935-1956. His books include Later Chinese Ceramics (1951) Ming Pottery and Porcelain (1953) Wares of the Transitional Period between Ming and the Ch'ing 1620-1683 (1955) Japanese Porcelain (1965) Japanese Pottery (1971) and (with Margaret Jourdain) Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century (1950). For more information see : Provenance ; Collectors, Dealers & Scholars : Chinese Ceramics in Britain & America (Roy Davids, Dominic Jellinek, Privately Printed, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9570148-0-0). — Soame Jenyns, Deputy Keeper of Asian Antiquities, British Museum (1950-1968)