Description

Chinese porcelain blue and white sweetmeat dish, mukozuke, in the form of a recumbent elephant on three circular feet with its head turned back, the underside moulded with the ears, eyes and tail painted to highlight the features.

7 1/8 inches, 18.1 cm long.

Tianqi, 1621-1627.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • Sold by Shogado, Tokyo, 21st June 2017.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 22, pp. 64/65.
  • One from a mixed set of six and one with colour probably added later, all in the Sekido Museum of Art, Adachi City, Tokyo, are illustrated in their catalogue of Kosometsuke, 2017, no. 94, p. 144 and no. 113, p. 163 respectively; another also from a mixed set of six, in the Sato collection, Kanagawa Prefecture, was included in the Kyoto National Museum special exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, the Most Popular Works amongst Japanese, 1991, no. 174; a set of five similar dishes are illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Colour Section, no. 155, pp. 192/193 and in the Monochrome Section, no. 720, p. 187.
  • This shaped sweetmeat dish, called in Japanese mukozuke, were used in the tea-ceremony or the meal afterwards.
  • Eight different sweetmeat dishes were included by Marchant in their exhibition of Ming Porcelain for the Japanese Market, Ko-sometsuke and Ko-akai, 2008, nos. 11-19, pp. 30-43; and seven further different sweetmeat dishes were included by Marchant in their exhibition of Transitional Wares for the Japanese and Domestic Markets, 1989, nos. 9-15, pp. 16-19.

Condition

  • natural firing spots,and mushukui
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