A 17th Century Japanese Double Gourd Shaped Porcelain Dish.

A 17th Century Japanese Double Gourd Shaped Porcelain Dish, Arita Kilns c.1660-1680. This unusual blue and white Japanese porcelain serving dish was probably made using a hump mould. This shape is well known among the small serving dishes of this period, however the abstract design is very unusual. Using lines, zig-zagged lines, circles, broken lines and cross-hatching, I think it conveys the sense of water with ripples and reflections. The flat rim is dressed with an iron-oxide enamel, called 口紅 Fuchibeni in Japanese, meaning lipstick. It was used to frame ceramic designs but it also adds some strength to the fragile rim, as well as showing that the rim was not chipped. The word Fuchibeni, comes from kuchi meaning mouth and beni meaning red/safflower red. SALE PENDING See Below For More Photographs and Information