Vase

Location: Japan

Materials: earthenware, painted and gilded

Dimensions: height 18 cm

Accession Number: S 77

Other Notes:

An earthenware vase with a tapering ovoid body and short slightly flared neck and foot, painted and gilt with scenes showing the decorating, drying, and folding of lengths of silk. The shoulder decorated with a shaped border of millefleurs surrounding roundels of pink and white cherry-blossom.

The original copper-plate design for this vase is in the possession of the Osaka City Museum, donated by the Yabu family. Such copper plates were used to print the design on a sheet of paper, after which the design was cut out from the printed paper and placed on the pottery, and the outline impressed on the white background.

Bibliography:

O. Impey, M. Fairley (eds.), Meiji No Takara: Treasures Of Imperial Japan: Ceramics Vol II, London 1995, cat. 87.
J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 97, p. 153.