Ref: U769
Archive item - not for sale
Pair of Japanese Arita Dutch decorated tokkuri, circa 1680, the tapering square sectioned bodies decorated in polychrome enamels and gilt details with opposing panels of long-tailed birds and insects sitting on flowering branches of peony and prunus, or flowering chrysanthemums and prunus branches issuing from rockwork, all among water reeds, the canted shoulders decorated with a diaper pattern interspersed by stylised ruyi and flowerheads, the neck with an inverted lambrequin border, height: 8 ¼ in. (21.5 cm.) and 8 ¼ in. (21 cm). The shape is derived from Dutch gin bottle, but could have been used as a toguri, or tokura, the Japanese sake bottle. There is a Japanese square sectioned flask with Dutch Kakiemon-style enamels in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum, No. 235, illustrated in Jorg, Christiaan, ‘Porcelain for Palaces’, p. 241. SOLD
