Description

Chinese porcelain blue and white sweetmeat dish, mukozuke, of biwa or lute form on three feet, painted with the three-strings dividing a prunus spray and a bamboo spray beneath insects and flight, the underside glazed white.

7 3⁄4 inches, 19.7 cm long.

Tianqi, 1621-1627.

Japanese wood box.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • From a private collection, Japan.
  • Purchased by Marchant in the Osaka Bay Province, Japan, 17th April 2019.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 29, pp. 78/79.
  • A mixed set of five four-string biwa, each design differing slightly, are illustrated in colour by Senju Sato in Kosometsuke, no. 29, pp. 58/9 and by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Colour Section, no. 163, pp. 206/7 and again by Saito Kikutaro in Complete Collection of Ceramics, vol. 44, Kosometsuke and Shonzui, no. 71.
  • No other three-string biwa or lute appears to be published.

Condition

  • mushukui, firing spots
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