A JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE SAKE BOTTLE

A JAPANESE ARITA BLUE AND WHITE SAKE BOTTLE, TOKKURI

EDO PERIOD, 17TH CENTURY

Shaped as a double gourd, the body decorated with a stylised mountainous river landscape, the neck and foot with bands of lappets, 21cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Richard Gordon Smith (1858-1918) and thence by descent. Gordon Smith was an English traveller, sportsman and naturalist who lived in Japan at the turn of the century, recording his experience in his "Ill-Spelled Diaries" and transcribing traditional myths which he later published in "Ancient Tales and Folklore of Japan" (1908). Entries from his diaries were later published in "Travels in the Land of the Gods: The Japan Diaries of Richard Gordon Smith" (1986).