A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE KOSOMETSUKE SWEETMEAT DISH, (MUKO...

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Hammer

£2,000

A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE KOSOMETSUKE SWEETMEAT DISH, (MUKOZUKE)
TIANQI, (1621-1627)
青花扇形及海螺型碟天启
n the form of a shell, with a large prawn amongst aquatic plants, naturalistically modelled with fukizumi
18.3cm long

PROVENANCE: Formerly in a Japanese private collection, Tokyo. Purchased in Nagano, 2013

NOTE: A similar example was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Kosometsuke & Shonzui, 2024, no. 26, pp. 72/3. A similar set of five with smaller shrimps and smaller aquatic plants are illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara in Ko-sometsuke, Colour Section, no. 148, pp. 178/9; another set with smaller shrimps in reverse position, are illustrated by the Sekido Museum of Art, Adachi City, Tokyo, in their catalogue of Kosometsuke, 2017, no. 99, p. 149. · A shard discovered at Jingdezhen No. 3 Middle School kiln site from the Tianqi/Chongzhen strata with the end of a similar shell is illustrated by Huang Qing Hua in Colorful Japan – the Special Exhibition of the Ordered Porcelains at the End of Ming Dynasty from Japan, which relates to discoveries from this period at Jingdezhen, p. 118.

A further different group with smaller shrimps and completely lobed edges to the shell, gift of Dr. Yokogawa Tamisuke, in the Tokyo National Museum, is illustrated in their catalogue of Chinese Ceramics II, no. 218, p. 57, together with a biwa and a peach and flower sweetmeat dish; another from the lobed set is illustrated by Kitaoji Rosan-jin in Kosometsuke Hyaku Hin-shu, no. 23. A similar shell dish painted with a carp amongst aquatic plants was included by Marchant in their catalogue of Recent Acquisitions, 2010, no. 10, pp. 20/1.

Together with A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE KOSOMETSUKE SWEETMEAT DISH (MUKOZUKE)
TIANQI, (1621-1627)
in the form of a fan, painted with fishermen in their boats in a river landscape scene, naturalistically modelled with fluting
13cm long

PROVENANCE: Purchased from Yamanaka, 1929, formerly in the Murai Collection.
From the collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. From the estate of William Kelly Simpson.