TWO JAPANESE BOWLS FOR THE TEA CEREMONY, CHAWAN

EDO PERIOD OR LATER, 17TH CENTURY OR LATER

One with a tall U-shaped body decorated with gold lacquer seemingly dripping over the black glaze, the shapes evoking mountain tops and clouds, the glaze stopping short of the shallow foot and with an incised mark for Ninsei underneath, a paper collection label reading "Nono mura Seisuke Ninsei 1650"; the other in raku style with pink mottling over a brown ground, with old kintsugi gold lacquer restoration, 9.6cm and 7.8cm respectively. (2)

Provenance: a private English collection, London and Shetland.

See the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, Iro-e Yoshino Yama zu Chatsubo (Important Cultural Property), for a large tea storage container by Ninsei (active ca. 1646-77) with a similar pattern of gold clouds over a deep black ground, representing the night sky over Mount Yoshino.