Page 94 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

(another view with box)

1639
A RARE BLUE AND WHITE KO-SOMETSUKE BASKETBLUE AND WHITE KO-SOMETSUKE BASKET
TIANQI PERIOD (1621-1627)
The rounded, rectangular basket has low sides that support a U-shaped handle. The interior is decorated
with four prancing horses, the handle with a loosely-painted leafy branch and scrolls, and the sides on the
exterior are decorated with further leafy branches.
6√ in. (17.5 cm.) wide, Japanese wood box
$30,000-40,000

PROVENANCE
Ikemasa Ltd., Tokyo.
In the seventeenth century, with the weakening of imperial power of the Ming dynasty, Chinese potters
instead turned their talents to service other markets, including the Japanese demand for elaborately-
shaped wares for use in the tea ceremony. The formal Japanese tea ceremony, which became popular
during the Momoyama period (1568-1615), required many vessels of specifc forms, such as buckets
for fresh water, small food dishes in sets of fve, and handled trays for rice cakes, such as the present
basket.
A similar basket, or handled tray, also with four horses on the interior, was included in an exhibition at
the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, and is illustrated in the catalogue, Kosometsuke and Shonzui – The
Blue and White Tea Ceramics of Japanese Admiration, Tokyo, 2013, no. 9. Another example, but decorated
with only three horses, is illustrated by S. Sato and T. Murayama, Kosometsuke, Tokyo, 1969, p. 75,
no. 44.

For a related handled tray in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, which is slightly smaller than the
present example (16.8 cm. wide), and decorated with fgures in a landscape, see S. Little, Chinese
Ceramics of the Transitional Period: 1620-1683, Dartmouth, 1983, p. 49, no. 11, where the author also cites
similar examples illustrated by M. Kawahara, Ko-sometsuke, vol. 2, Kyoto, 1977, pls. 351-364.
Another handled tray, decorated with a landscape scene, is illustrated by R. Fujioka and G. Hasebe,
Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 14, Shogakukan, Tokyo, 1976, p. 281, fg. 163. Compare, also, a shallow bowl
loosely decorated with two prancing horses, illustrated by Sir M. Butler, M. Medley and S. Little,
Seventeenth Century Chinese Porcelain from the Butler Family Collection, Alexandria, 1990, p. 52, no. 14.
明天啓 青花駿馬圖提籃

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