Japanese Imari Coffee Pot and Cover with Later Silver-Plated

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 and 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 [scrolling foliage] and a flowerhead, fitted with a metal tap modelled as a mythical beast head and surmounted by a fish, 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. 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).