A PAIR OF LARGE JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE DISHES

A PAIR OF LARGE JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE DISHES

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH OR 20TH CENTURY

Both delicately painted in underglaze blue with dense patterns of formal lotus flowers and leafy tendrils, each with four ho-o birds in flight on the cavetto and with a border of flowerheads in lozenges to the foliate rim, the undersides with karakusa scrolls; together with a fitted tomobako wood box, the lid inscribed, each dish approx. 47.2cm. (3)

Provenance: from the collection of the late Gas Kimishima, wood-fire potter and specialist in the ancient kilns of Japan, purchased in Japan and thence by descent. Gas established his studio in England and built his own anagama kiln in Tring, Hertfordshire.