Description

Two Chinese porcelain blue and white sweetmeat dishes, mukozuke, each in the form of a recumbent horse on four short round feet, the details painted in outline and blue wash, the underside moulded and outlined to reveal the features, mane and tail.

One 6 3⁄4 inches, 17.2 cm long; the other 6 7/8 inches, 17.4 cm long.

Tianqi, 1621-1627.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • Formerly in the Yoshii family collection, Edo period.
  • Sold by Kippei Art Company, Tokyo, 23rd May 2009.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 24, pp. 68/69.
  • No other horses of this exact group appear recorded.
  • There are at least five different types of recumbent horse models known. (A) This plain model with a washed border and complete outline on the reverse. (B) This model with dappling. (C) Another plain model without the washed border and only the head outlined with fukizumi on the reverse. (D) Model C with dappling, the reverse with only the head outlined and fukizumi. (E) Model C with dappling of larger flowers and fukizumi.
  • A composite set of five, four of this model with dappling, (B), and one of (D), is illustrated by Saito Kikutaro in Complete Collection of Ceramics, vol. 15, Kosometsuke, p. 62, and by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Monochrome Section, no. 723, p. 189, and also by Senju Sato and Takeshi Mayuyama in Kosometsuke, no. 72, p. 105, and by the Sekido Museum of Art, Adachi City, Tokyo, in their catalogue of Kosometsuke, 2017, no. 108, p. 158.
  • A pair of plain dishes of model (C) were included by Marchant in their exhibition of Chinese Blue and White, Wan Li to K’ang Hsi, 1980, no. 12; another in Transitional Wares for the Japanese and Domestic Markets, 1989, no. 13, p. 18; and another in Recent Acquisitions, 2010, no. 14, pp. 22/3; another of model (C), from the Effie B. Allison collection, gift of J. V. West and B. V. Gewald, now in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, was included by Julia B. Curtis in the exhibition of Trade Taste and Transformation, Jingdezhen Porcelain for Japan, 1620-1645, China Institute Gallery, 2006, no. 30, p. 59.
  • Another composite set of five made up of models (C), (D) and (E) is illustrated by the Iida City Art Museum, Nagano, Japan, in their catalogue of The Watahan Nohara Collection, 2000, no. 113, p. 72.

Condition

  • a natural firing glaze crack and a glaze gap, firing imperfections
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