Beaker vase
Category
Ceramics
Date
1700 - 1720
Materials
Porcelain, cobalt, enamel, gold.
Measurements
420 mm (Height); 210 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Arita
Collection
Saltram, Devon
NT 881200
Summary
Beaker vase, porcelain, cylindrical with a flaring rim and with widening and then inverting base, made in Arita, Hizen Province, Japan, 1700–20, decorated in the Imari palette of underglaze blue and overglaze red enamel and gold with shaped panels with long-tailed birds perched in prunus trees, against a ground of peonies in red and gold with foliage in blue, the inverted base with stylised upright flowers in blue and white, a band under the rim with a coiling dragon on a red ground.
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 symmetrical sets of Imari beaker vases and jars, known as ‘garnitures’, were used as grand visual punctuation marks.
References
Ferguson 2016: Patricia F. Ferguson, Ceramics: 400 Years of British Collecting in 100 Masterpieces, Philip Wilson Publishers, 2016, pp.70-1