Ref: U929
Archive item - not for sale
Pair of Meissen Dutch decorated flasks, the porcelain circa 1725, the decoration circa 1735, with later European mounts, of square section form with a long neck, decorated in the kakiemon style, with the ‘Hob in the Well’ pattern and a cat and bird by a flowering tree, the neck with formal scrollwork. height: 9 ¼ in. (23.3 cm.) This shape was originally used by Japanese potters for sake bottles and was popular with the Meissen factory from 1725-35, as was the story of Shiba Onko who rescued a friend from drowning in a large pottery jar by throwing rocks down it causing the jar to smash; this pattern was first copied by Meissen around 1730 and subsequently by Dutch enamellers. Böttgers’s white undecorated porcelain was sometimes decorated outside the factory; for example, another Dutch decorated sake bottle is illustrated in Ducret, S., ‘German Porcelain and Faience’, pp. 286 & 287. SOLD
