A JAPANESE ARITA BOWL

A JAPANESE ARITA BOWL
EDO PERIOD, C.1700

The square body with lobed sides and raised on a short circular foot, the cavetto moulded with waves and cherry blossoms, painted in red, yellow, green, aubergine and gilt with scrolling tendrils and stylised peonies to the inside and prunus, chrysanthemum and raimon (thunder pattern) spirals to the outside, 18.2cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay GCB, KCMG, CVO, PC, 1877-1945, and thence by descent. Sir Ronald Lindsay was a British civil servant and diplomat. He became British Ambassador to Turkey from 1925-26 and to Germany from 1926-28; from 1928-30, he was Permanent Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and from 1930-39 the British Ambassador to the United States of America.

Cf. S Jenyns, Japanese Porcelain, ill.36A for a related bowl from the collection of Mr and Mrs de la Mare, also illustrated in the exhibition catalogue of the Oriental Ceramics Society, Loan Exhibition of Japanese Porcelain, 28 March-28 April 1956, no.248.

An identical bowl from the collection of Augustus the Strong (1670-1733), inventoried in 1721 and with N=10 incised reference mark is on display today at the Zwinger Palace in Dresden. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford owns another comparable example, ref. 1985.48, from the Jeffery Story and Walter Cook Bequest.