Two Inkstands and a Sander

ARITA WARE, KAKIEMON STYLE, EDO PERIOD (1680-1700)

Details

Two Inkstands and a Sander
Arita Ware, Kakiemon Style, Edo Period (1680-1700)
Each inkstand square and pierced on the flat top with four corner apertures and a large central aperture above the well, painted on the exterior in red, blue, turquoise and black enamels and in gilt with opposing rectangular side panels of pine, maples and rocks, and of prunus, maples and rocks, and with two panels of a gilded lotus blossom and scrolling stems covered only by the clear glaze so they appear white in contrast to the surrounding red enamel, the tops of the stands enamelled with green scrolling foliage and with four red florets around each corner hole, flat bases unglazed; the sander rectangular, pierced in the sunken top with twenty-one small holes and decorated en suite with opposing panels of plum and a brush fence and pine, bamboo and rock and with end panels of red lotus scroll and a gilded lotus blossom, flat base unglazed
4 x 4 x 2in. (10.4 x 10.4 x 5.7cm.); 4 x 4 x 2in. (10.4 x 10.4 x 5.7cm.); 3.7/8 x 1.7/8 x 2.1/8in. (9.8 x 5 x 5.9cm.) (3)

Provenance

Richard W. Weatherhead
Richard de la Mare, sold Sotheby's, London, The Richard de la Mare Collection of Kakiemon and Nabeshima Porcelain, 2 June, 1976, lots 39, 40

Exhibited

The Arts Council Gallery, London, "The Oriental Ceramic Society Loan Exhibition of Japanese Porcelain," 1956.3.28--4.28 [the first ink stand and sander]

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Catalogue of a loan exhibition of Japanese porcelain, intro. by Soame Jenyns (London: The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1956), cat. no. 113 (not illustrated) [the first ink stand]; no. 112 (illustrated) [sander].
Soame Jenyns, Japanese Porcelain (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1965), no. 65A.
Nabeshima Naoaki, ed., Kakiemon (Saga City: Kinkado Shoten, 1957), fig. p. 172.

A matching inkstand in the collection of the Groninger Museum, Groningen, Holland is published in John Ayers et al., Porcelain for Palaces: The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650--1750, exh. cat. (London: Oriental Ceramic Society and British Museum, 1990), pl. 108 where the catalogue entry remarks "designed for the Western market and no doubt based on Delft originals." The 'sander' sprinkles sand on paper to dry wet ink.

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