Ewer Porcelain From Japan 17 ° Century. Arita Kilns Circa 1670. Peonies Relief Decor.

Porcelain ewer from the Kyushu Arita oven second part of the 17th century. We only know a few identical models, one, with its lid, is kept in the British museum, another is housed in Tokyo at the Idemitsu Museum and happens to be one of the major pieces of the collection, finally a last one, damaged and without a lid, was sold by Sothebys London on June 1, 1981. To our knowledge there are no others. Curiously the porcelain of these ewers is atypical and could be confused with soft porcelain but in fact it must be the result of firing at a lower temperature, probably around 1150-1200° moreover there are firing defects, these 2 elements show us an imperfect mastery of firing which allows us to think that these ewers are older than we claim. The shape is inspired by Islamic creations from Central Asia in metal from previous centuries. The decoration is molded in relief of peonies and painted with red, green and blue enamels. This is one of the rarest ceramics, worthy of appearing, even enthroned, in the most great collections. The lid is missing, cooking defects, some scratches and wear from use of a ceramic that is venerably 350 years old. No restaure. No gluing. H: 287mm