KAMAKURA PERIOD (14TH CENTURY)

Details

A KO-SETO BOTTLE
REGISTERED AS A JUYO BIJUTSUHIN [IMPORTANT ART OBJECT]
Kamakura Period (14th Century)
The stoneware body with green-brown glaze and with five impressed chrysanthemum flowers and scrolling tendril
10.5in. (26.8cm) high

Provenance

At the time of its registration (see below) in the possession of Mr Takeji Tanabe

Exhibited

Registered as a Juyo bijutsuhin [Important Art Object] on 27 May 1937

Special notice

Prospective buyers of this lot should be aware that as an 'Important Art Object' this Lot cannot, as matters presently stand, leave Japan. Successful buyers are themselves responsible for registering their acquisition of the lot with the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Japanese Government within 14 days of the date of the sale. This lot is subject to Japanese consumption tax at 5% on the hammer price and is zero rated for United Kingdom VAT.

Further details

Prospective buyers of this Lot should be aware that as an 'Important Art Object' this Lot cannot, as matters presently stand, leave Japan. Successful buyers are themselves responsible for registering their acquisition of the Lot with the the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Japanese Government within 14 days of the date of the sale. This Lot is subject to Japanese consumption tax at 5 on the hammer price and is zero rated for United Kingdom VAT

Sale room notice

Please note, the example illustrated in the catalogue has been withdrawn and a further example is now offered for sale. The catalogue description is available on the internet, from the department and will be presented along with the illustration during the view. Please contact the department for any queries and condition report for this lot. Please also note, this lot is subject to a specific important notice, see page 23 in the catalogue, and note as follows:
Prospective buyers of this Lot should be aware that as an 'Important Art Object' this Lot cannot, as matters presently stand, leave Japan. Successful buyers are themselves responsible for registering their acquisition of the Lot with the Cultural Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Japanese Government within 14 days of the date of the sale. This Lot is subject to Japanese consumption tax at 5 on the hammerprice and is zero rated for United Kingdom VAT.

Lot Essay

During the twelfth century, the Ko-seto or Old Seto kilns, in the vicinity of the modern city of Nagoya, started production of a range of high-quality wares that were deliberately intended as substitutes for imported Chinese ceramics, with increasingly sophisticated glazes and stamped floral designs. Although by no means as refined as their continental prototypes, wares from the 'Six Old Kilns' (there are in fact several more) have long been admired both inside and outside Japan for their vigorous forms and understated decoration, characteristics that are also seen in later wares for the tea ceremony. Although Ko-Seto wares have been excavated throughout Japan, finds are most numerous around Kamakura, then the country's military capital; they were apparently used as household utensils by members of the upper classes who had difficulty obtaining imported Chinese luxury goods.

This rare and very powerful jar is decorated with floral and other designs that were stamped into the ground while the clay was still wet; the jar was then covered with a brown glaze of uneven thickness that came into use during the fourteenth century, a combination of ash and oni-ita, an alluvial deposit of iron oxide-bearing clay. For other examples, see Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [Tokyo National Museum], Nihon no toji [Japanese ceramics] (Tokyo, 1985), cat. nos. 145 and 147, and Christie's New York, 27 April 1994, lot 197, from the estate of Blanchette H. Rockefeller.

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