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Re: Mitsui Family Kutani ? Bowl

Posted By: Bill H
Posted Date: Apr 23, 2009 (02:07 AM)

Message
Paul,

Your bowl has one of the better known Japanese ceramics marks, which nowadays usually is transcribed in English as "Eiraku" (previously "Yeiraku") and translatable as "Eternal Joy." I have a few examples of latter-day Eiraku Kutani wares on my shelves but only in the red and gilt style called "kinrande." In my opinion, since your bowl's provenance sounds like that of a unique commissioned piece, it belongs on the high end of the value scale.

I've never seen decoration quite like what's on your bowl, although if "Inspired by Nature" and "No Straight Lines" are really definitions of Art Nouveau, then the design seems to fit the category, and it may be a clue as to period. In any event, if you have enough evidence to date it into the 19th century, then it would seem to be attributable either to Eiraku Wazen (12th in the line) or his eldest son, Eiraku Takuzen (13th in the line), who took over from his father in 1872 (Other info on the Eiraku lineage is available at the URLs below.). Eiraku Takuzen is the 13th descendant mentioned in my upload of annotated data on Eiraku and its origins from a book originally published in 1882 by the British author James Lord Bowes. Just watch out for the outdated spellings of Eiraku and Kyoto.

These are some informative URLs of trocadero.com listings for Eiraku wares. Since there are so many, I'll just list them here instead of uploading. They can be accessed by pasting into browser windows.

http://www.trocadero.com/cranegallery/items/746644/item746644.html

http://www.trocadero.com/SANAI/items/803048/item803048.html

http://www.trocadero.com/cranegallery/items/726770/item726770.html

http://www.trocadero.com/SANAI/items/805548/item805548.html

Alhough without a picture of the item, here also is a URL showing the 1999 Sotheby's sale result for an Eiraku Wazen bowl in the "Fa Hua" style (a technique similar to Majolica). While dissimilar in decoration to yours, the Sotheby's bowl may be closer to yours in size.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=Y2MX

Good luck,

Bill H.

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