FIVE SMALL JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE DISHES (MUKOZUKE)

FIVE SMALL JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE DISHES (MUKOZUKE)

EDO PERIOD, 18TH CENTURY

Each with a scalloped brown-edged rim, all decorated with a moulded design of a farmer attending to two small elephants in a bamboo grove, with lines of calligraphy to the side, each dish with a fuku seal mark to the base in a double ring, all approx. 10.6cm. (5)

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.

Cf. The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Complete Catalogue of Shibata Collection, no.3379, for another related dish with moulded decoration, which the authors dated to c.1750-80.