A RARE JAPANESE KAKIEMON EWER

A RARE JAPANESE KAKIEMON EWER, KENDI

C.1680

The short bulbous body decorated in red, blue, green and black enamels with a continuous river landscape, with fishing boats sailing in the distance, sparrows in flight and a large weeping willow to the side, the mammiform spout painted with stylised clouds, the shoulder and foot with concentric red lines and with a band of dots to the base of the neck, with Indonesian white metal mounts, 15cm.

Cf. C J A Jörg, Fine and Curious, Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, p.65, no.50 for another kendi decorated with landscapes and with Indonesian mounts. Also, B Brennan Ford & O Impey, Japanese Art from the Gerry Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p.77, no.46, and the British Museum acc. no. Franks.1215.+ for other examples. This type of ewers was produced for the South-East Asian market where they were highly popular and considered holy and venerated objects.