A RARE JAPANESE VASE MODELLED AS A SHACHIHOKO

A RARE JAPANESE VASE MODELLED AS A SHACHIHOKO
PROBABLY EDO, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

The dragon-fish depicted leaping out of crashing waves, its mouth wide open; painted in underglaze blue and with the pupils picked out in black; the base inscribed Daishin Kakeitei nensei, 18cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Dr Richard Brown, and thence by descent.

Dr. Richard F. Brown (1898-1963) was a Canadian Anglican missionary doctor who served in China, most notably at St. Paul's Hospital in Henan, starting around 1930. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he became a field doctor, providing urgent medical aid near the front lines and famously collaborating with fellow Canadian Dr. Norman Bethune in 1938 to treat wounded soldiers.

WITHOUT RESERVE