Dish
Category
Ceramics
Date
1700 - 1730
Materials
Porcelain, cobalt, enamel, gold
Measurements
95 mm (Height); 550 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Arita
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870797
Summary
Dish, porcelain, round, with a flat rim, made in Arita, Hizen Province, Japan, 1700–30, decorated in the Imari palette in underglaze blue and overglaze black, red and gold with a jardiniere with flowers on a wooden veranda in the centre, and on the rim three shaped areas with phoenixes as well as individual rosettes reserved against the black.
Full description
In the early 18th century, the porcelain made at the Arita kilns for export to Europe became increasingly exuberant (Ferguson 2016). The various motifs had specific meanings in the Japanese context, but on export wares they were used more to create dense visual patterns that appealed to European late-baroque taste. In European interiors dishes such as these were used to decorate pier tables and sideboards and possibly during banquets. The areas of black or very dark blue enamel appear to have been meant to evoke lacquer, which was also in demand in Europe. Some Arita wares were decorated with actual lacquer, but it was challenging to make the two materials adhere properly. For other Imari dishes with area of dark blue or black, see inv. nos. PO 2953 and PO 5228 in the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, with a provenance from Augustus II (known as ‘the Strong’), Elector of Saxony (1670–1733) and listed in the 1721 inventory of the Palace in Alt-Dresden.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust by Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley (1878-1962), 1957.
References
Ferguson 2016: Patricia F. Ferguson, Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces, London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2016, pp. 58-9, 70-1.