Page 121 - Bonhams Fine Chinese Art London Nov. 2019

Although trade between China and Japan by vessels of either nation As trade with Japan developed during the Tianqi period, a profusion
was officially banned by Ming emperors during the 16th century, of new shapes and decorative motifs emerged. The present lot was
following the weakening of central authority and power, Chinese inspired by a Japanese shape; see for example a very similarly shaped
merchants regularly sailed from Nanjing, Fuzhou, Quanzhou and Xiamen Imari blue-glazed bottle vase, 18th century, illustrated in Old Imari
to Nagasaki; see for example the early 17th century ‘Selden’ map of Ware, Tokyo, 1991, p.62, no.123. Although the shape is Japanese,
China and East Asia, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which shows the decoration is essentially Chinese: landscapes with small figures in
the ‘un-official’ lined trade routes between China and Japan (acc.no. boats and the Three Friends of Winter. The Japanese influence is also
MS.Selden supra 105). From the end of the Wanli reign until the seen in the unusual arrangement of the shan patterned border around
overthrow of the Ming dynasty in 1644, Chinese merchants exported the body, and the floral band around the shoulder.
wares for use in the Japanese tea ceremony. These pieces became
known to the Japanese as ‘Ko-sometsuke’ (literally ‘old blue and
white’). The feudal lords and their tea masters who ordered these wares
required original designs for their personal use or limited number of
followers. Although orders were small, the prices paid were very high.

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