Description

Chinese porcelain blue and white large saucer dish painted in the centre with a seated scholar leaning on a rockwork table, looking out at a waterfall emerging from the rocks and causing ripples on the river, all in a landscape scene with overhanging rockwork and plants beneath a cloud bank and birds in flight, all within a single line, the reverse with two birds perched amongst branches between double lines, the base glazed white.

10 3⁄4 inches, 27.3 cm diameter.

Tianqi, 1621-1627.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • Formerly in a private collection, Tokyo.
  • Sold by Kochukyo, Tokyo, 8th February 2014.
  • Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 33, pp. 88/89.
  • This saucer dish belongs to a painterly group without elaborate borders, with the design cleverly extending towards the rim. The artistic merit is obvious.
  • A slightly larger saucer dish of this form with two fishermen painted in a related style, gift of Dr. Yokogawa Tamisuke, in the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in their catalogue of Chinese Ceramics II, no. 161, p. 43, and again illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Monochrome Section, no. 649, p. 165.
  • A slightly larger saucer dish with a seated scholar admiring a waterfall with overhanging rocks, painted in a similar style with a blue wash edge, is illustrated by Senju Sato and Takeshi Mayuyama in Kosometsuke, no. 54, p. 85; another saucer dish of this form and size, painted with two boats with the mountains similarly outlined with blue wash, was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Transitional Wares for the Japanese and Domestic Markets, 1989, no. 3, pp. 12/3 and front cover enlargement; another is included here, see no. 16.

Condition

mushukui,a few natural firing spots

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