A JAPANESE KYOTO WARE JOSS STICK HOLDER EDO 1603-1868 The rectangular body decorated with...

A JAPANESE KYOTO WARE JOSS STICK HOLDER

EDO 1603-1868

The rectangular body decorated with abstract roundels in thick red and blue enamels on a basil green ground, with honeycomb-shaped apertures to the sides and round openings to the top for holding the joss sticks, the base with a paper label for Worcester Royal Porcelain Works Museum N.6.03, 9cm.

Cf. J Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, vol. II, pp.706-707, no.1719, for a Kyoto ware vase with similar decoration and honeycomb-shaped reticulations. According to the author, Kyoto wares were seldom exported from Japan. Examples can be found in the collections of Augustus the Strong in Dresden and at Burghley House.