Japanese imari coffee pot and cover with later silver-plated mounts, Edo Period, c.1700, with tapering ribbed body, decorated in iron-red, green, yellow, aubergine and black enamels with gilt on brilliant underglaze blue with two ho-ho birds amongst peony and pomegranate issuing from rockwork, the cover similarly decorated and surmounted by a knop finial, the loop handle pierced for a mount and decorated with karakusa scrollwork and a flowerhead, fitted with a metal tap modelled as a mythical beast head and surmounted by a fish.
Dimensions:
Height: 35.5cm. (14in.)
Condition:
Some rubbing to the silver metal on the feet and handle; slight usual wear to the enamel, hairline crack to the rim, hairline beneath handle to base.
Notes:
This coffee pot would have been made for the European market and was probably based on a Dutch metal original. Additions of silver or gold mountings to a porcelain vessel were common in export wares, indicative of the high value placed on porcelain by the wealthy European consumers. For a similar coffee pot see Soame Jenyns, 'Japanese Porcelain' (London, 1965), no. 18A. (Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen).
