An Unusual 17th Century Japanese Porcelain Dish

A Japanese Blue and White Porcelain Dish Ko-Kuntani Type, Arita Kilns, Kanbun 寛文 (1663–1673) or Enpô 延宝 era (1673 – 1681). This highly unusual dish depicts a warbler bird at night on a branch of a gnarled old prunus tree. The night-time scene with large snowflakes is enclosed within a snowflake. This 17th Century Arita porcelain dish depicts stylised snowflakes, sometimes referred to as a snow wheel. The design is of course fanciful as the true form of a snowflake had yet to be determined.  The back is decorated with a meandering flower scroll design and a mark within a square. There are also five spur-marks, indicating where the dish was supported in the firing. The glaze has a pale blue-green tint and as is common with the Ko-Kutani type the glaze is evenly crazed to the front and back.

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