Four 17th Century Proto-Kakiemon Early Enameled Dishes

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A set of four early enameled dishes fired 1640.

These 17th-century Japanese dishes from the Kakiemon kilns represent some of the earliest Japanese enameled wares.  A dish with very similar design and with the same Shoki-Imari body is catalogued in the Shibata Collection | The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, entry #0169, dated to 1640.  In his book, Porcelain for Palaces, Dr. Oliver Impey suggests the terms "early enameled wares" and "proto-kakiemon" to describe these types of enameled shoki-imari pieces.

These dishes are very finely potted and the porcelain is bright and semi-translucent. They are decorated in early translucent Kakiemon enamels and, consistent with the very earliest enameled wares, there is an absence of yellow.  Each dish is decorated with thick blue ring that evokes the eternal and continuous stream.  The interior of the ring is depicted as a wide ring of flower petals rendered in a deep overglaze blue line-work and washed in a lighter blue, translucent enamel.   The subtle outward curvature of the petals along with their dotted ridge line imparts a convex effect about the outer ring, right against the start of the concave curve of the cavetto.  Dark radial nectar lines contain the center where delicate vine tendrils scroll and curl from an asymmetrical composition with leaves, a single flower, and two small buds.  The tendrils and the plant outlines are painted in underglaze red; the outlines are then infilled with the transparent red and blue glazes.  Note how the lightest blue, transparent infill on the leaves overlays the red line-work to produce an overall aubergine effect for the leaves - amazing technical understanding of kiln temperature, enamel transparencies, and color layering!

The first dish in good condition; the second dish with a 2.5cm rim hairline; the third dish with two minute chips and two thin 4mm hairlines; the fourth dish with a chip and few short hairlines.  

Compare with an example published in Art through a Lifetime: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection, Vol. II, entry 616

A matching example of this dish was donated to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens by the Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation in 2015

D: 14 cm

H:    cm 

An early enameled dish fired ~1640 to 1650

This 17th-century Japanese dish from the Kakiemon kilns represents some of the earliest Japanese enameled wares.   In his book, Porcelain for Palaces, Dr. Oliver Impey suggests the terms "early enameled wares" and "proto-kakiemon" to describe these types of enameled Shoki-Imari early porcelain pieces.

In this dish, the idea of the eternal stream swells to an oval across the dish, with cresting waves, depicting the rising and falling tide - each land mass has a wave arriving and a wave departing, suggesting a yin/yang balance and the continual pull of natural forces to the entire composition.  Between the parted waves a landscape emerges in a translucent yellow and blue-green.  Small, red ruyi clouds separate colorful fruiting vines which provide a counter-point to the cresting waves. On the reverse are three sprays of twin leaves bearing a pale yellow fruit.

There is an old repair to a broken section of the rim.  A rim chip, some staining, uneven glaze, an errant smudge under the glaze on the face - this little dish has a story to tell along with its bright, cheerful, translucent enamels. 

D: 14 cm

H:    cm