A GOOD JAPANESE KO-KUTANI STYLE FOLIATE DISH WITH A BULLFINCH

A GOOD JAPANESE KO-KUTANI STYLE FOLIATE DISH

EDO PERIOD, c.1650-60

The well decorated with a small Japanese bullfinch perched on a flowering branch of prunus, with rocky outcrops and further vegetation underneath it, all within an underglaze-blue ring and framed by a band of karakusa-like scrolling tendrils, the decoration delicately painted in overglaze polychrome enamels, the cavetto moulded with radiating lines and the scalloped rim with a typical chocolate-brown edge; the underside with many stylised pine needles, further underglaze blue rings and a central square fuku mark in green and black enamels, a paper collection label reading 'BR 3115' and an auction label inscribed ' Christie's Rockefeller, 10 May 18, Sale 16723, Lot 921', 14.5cm.

Provenance: purchased from Christie's New York, The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller: Travel and Americana, 10th May 2018, lot 921. Originally from Miss Lucy Truman Aldrich of Providence, Rhode Island, acquired as a gift in the early 1950s.

Illustrated in R Ellsworth and A Christy, The David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection, vol. III, p.131, no.77.

See The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, access. no.46.1199 for another closely related dish, a gift of Miss Lucy T Aldrich. Also, see the British Museum, access. no.1959,0418.21 for another dish with two swallows perched on a branch of bamboo.

Cf. The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Complete Catalogue of Shibata Collection, no.0527 for another Ko-Kutani dish with a similarly moulded cavetto and painted with a bird on a branch in a similar colour scheme.

Lucy Truman Aldrich (1869-1955) was an important art collector and philanthropist from Providence, Rhode Island. Her sister was Abigail Rockefeller (1874-1948), the mother of David Rockefeller (1915-2017). Lucy travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, collecting European and Asian porcelain and textiles. She bequeathed many pieces to the Museum of Art of Rhode Island School of Design, and to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.