Description

Chinese porcelain blue and white moulded ewer in the form of a cat in a seated position with long curved striped upright tail, with hairwork down the spine, upright ears and strap-form handle, the short cylindrical spout issuing from the cat’s mouth, all on an oval short unglazed knife-cut foot rim with unglazed base.

8 inches, 20.4 cm high.

Wanli/Tianqi, circa 1620.

Japanese lacquered wood box.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • From the collection of a famous brewing family in the Kansai Province, Japan.
  • Purchased by Marchant in the Osaka Bay Province, Japan, 17th April 2019.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 3, pp. 18-21.
  • A similar ewer is illustrated by Junkichi Mayuyama in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Volume One, no. 986, p. 330; another is illustrated by William R. Sargent in Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, no. 27, pp. 105/106; a pair are illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Monochrome Section, no. 398, p. 105, probably the same pair is illustrated in Exhibition of Kosometsuke and Shonzui, 1981, no. 71, p. 47.

Condition

  • good condition with a few small natural glaze gap
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