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Lot Essay
The present dish is from the Kuroda Family Collection. The Kuroda clan originated in Harima Province, and served first the Ota and then the Toyotomi clans. For his service as a strategist, Kuroda Yoshitaka (1546-1604) was granted the lordship of Nakatsu Castle in 1587. Not only was Kuroda Yoshitaka the chief strategist to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he also became a friend of the famous tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591), and wrote a treatise on the principles of tea.
Longquan chagers exceeding 60 cm. in diametre are extremely rare, and it is even more exceptional to find one with a barbed-rim. Five similar examples of comparable size are known, four of which are in museums worldwide: one in the National Museum of China, published in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu: ciqi juan (Mingdai), Shanghai, 2007, pl. 112, another in the Nezu Art Museum, illustrated in Nezu Bijutsukan zōhin shirizu 4: Seiji, Tokyo, 1977, and two in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, included in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pls. 594 and 595; and one formerly in the Meiyintang Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 7. Compare also to a slightly smaller (57 cm.) dish in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. 1, no. 245.
Longquan chagers exceeding 60 cm. in diametre are extremely rare, and it is even more exceptional to find one with a barbed-rim. Five similar examples of comparable size are known, four of which are in museums worldwide: one in the National Museum of China, published in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu: ciqi juan (Mingdai), Shanghai, 2007, pl. 112, another in the Nezu Art Museum, illustrated in Nezu Bijutsukan zōhin shirizu 4: Seiji, Tokyo, 1977, and two in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, included in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pls. 594 and 595; and one formerly in the Meiyintang Collection, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2011, lot 7. Compare also to a slightly smaller (57 cm.) dish in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. 1, no. 245.