A BLUE AND WHITE KO-SOMETSUKE SAUCER DISH AND THREE OTHER KO-SOMETSUKE DISHES

Description:

China, one with underglaze blue Chenghua six-character mark, Tianqi period (1621-1627), another with hare mark
D. 14,7 bis 16,5 cm
The sweetmeat dish of chrysanthemum-flowerhead form painted with bands of waves, the rim dressed
light brown.
From the estate of Georg Weishaupt (1906-2004), the pair of plates acquired at Christie's London, 30.10.1989, lot 126
The lack of Chinese imperial patronage during this period prompted the potters at the Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province, to seek out new markets for their porcelain. This coincided with the rising popularity of the tea ceremony in Japan, which required a number of different utensils. Fulfilling the orders that followed from Japanese tea masters resulted in the flourishing of Chinese porcelain trade to Japan at this time. Ko-sometsuke wares were made to Japanese taste, in an astonishing variety of odd, asymmetrical and occasionally humorous forms. In contrast to the traditional blue and white wares produced at Jingdezhen. Essential to its requirements were that pieces appeared to have a natural origin, rather than an ordered, manmade one, so that flaws in shape and substance were considered virtues. An extension of this was a taste for pieces themselves represented natural forms as the present dish. The mushikui, or glaze-flaking, on many of the protuberances is an appreciated feature of ko-sometsuke pieces. The sheer diversity of unique shapes amongst these mukozukealone is not only a testament to this highly creative period at Jingdezhen. It is also representative of the adaptable nature of the Chinese potters and the cultural interactions between China and Japan during this period. A similar set of saucer dishes ot that type of slightly smaller size is published by Kawahara 'KO-Sometsuke Monochrome Section', Kyoto Shoin Co., Ltd. 1977, no. 758; Another set of similar sweetmeat dishes is published by S. Marchant & Sons 'Seventeenth-Century Blue and White and Copper-Red and their Predecessors', 8.6.1997-20.6.1997, no. 36 - Few small glaze frits or chips to rim, partly filled