A JAPANESE KAKIEMON LOBED DISH

A JAPANESE KAKIEMON LOBED DISH

EDO PERIOD, C.1700

The octofoil body with a typical brown rim and painted in iron red, green, yellow, cyan, dark blue and black enamels, decorated with a bird perched on a branch and another one in flight, with the Shochikubai, the Three Friends of Winter (bamboo, prunus, pine) around them, the branches issuing from rocky outcrops, the base with a paper collection label for G. & C. W. Digby, 21.2cm.

Provenance: from the collection of George and Cornelia Wingfield Digby and thence by descent.

George and Cornelia Wingfield Digby started buying Chinese and Japanese art, notably porcelain, in the early 1950s, and they continued to build their collection over the next 40 years. George Wingfield Digby (1911-1989) joined the Victoria & Albert Museum's textile department in 1934 and later served as Keeper between 1947 and 1972. He expanded the V & A's textile collection considerably during his time there and wrote three books on the subject. He also released three further publications on different fields of art, including The Work of the Modern Potter in England (1952), which his wife Cornelia played a large part in assisting him write. In addition to their extensive Asian Art collection, they also acquired a significant number of pieces of studio pottery which were lent to the Tate, St Ives in 1993. George and Cornelia lived in Palace Gardens Terrace, London, and they regularly bought from art dealers on Kensington Church Street as well as those outside London. After retiring, they settled in Dorset and part of their Chinese and Japanese art collection was exhibited at Sherborne Castle for 25 years.