Cowan Pottery Folk Art

An absolutely beautiful and extremely rare Shigarakai Yaki Ware Chawan tea bowl / Yunomi cup by famed Japanese Hawaiian American pottery master Toshiko Takaezu. The work features a gorgeous dripped glaze over a anagama kiln fired Shigaraki clay body. It is a unique and one-of-a-kind work with a very Wabi-Sabi feel to it. The piece is signed on the base with her traditional "TT" mark / monogram. Shigaraki Ware pottery comes from Shiga Prefecture, Japan. The kiln there is one of six ancient kilns in Japan (along with Echizen ware, Seto ware, Bizen ware, Tamba ware, and Tokoname ware). In 1993, Toshiko was invited to Japan by Shiro Otani to work with the quartz rich clay and local artists/potters at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park. In 1995 she made the journey there to work in master Japanese ceramicist Shiho Kanzaki's studio in Shigaraki,. We believe this work was likely created at this time. It appears few pieces that she made during this particular visit exists today as we have only seen one other work - another Chawan - that she created during this trip (The works were fired in Kanzaki's anagama kiln in February 1996 and subsequently shipped back to Toshiko in New Jersey). This particular work also encompasses the Japanese Wabi-Sabi aesthetic - the appreciation of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete in nature and embraces the principles of asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and the appreciation of both natural objects and the forces of nature upon them. Would be a great addition to any collectors of Toshiko's work or Japanese/Hawaiian pottery...

Remarkable pair of 19th Century Palissy ware Portuguese pitchers handcrafted in earthenware or clay, coated with colored glazes and decorated in a whimsical array of reptiles, bugs a...

Spanish Colonial majolica pottery water pitcher / vessel from the highlands of Guatemala. This piece has such character, with majolica glaze and traditional decorative design applied...

Circa 1970. We offer this Antique Mexican Pitcher in Frog Shape attributed at Gorky Gonzalez, made in ceramic and hand painted. About Gorky Gonzalez: Founder and artistic director of Traditional Pottery began his studies with his father, the Mexican sculptor...

French pottery cider bottle from Normandy, end of 19th century. 13 bottles available, sold separately. Different sizes.

An under-glazed painted pottery bowl with abstract naive design, blue, ochre, brown. Moroccan antique pottery bowl of deep rounded form with flattened rim rising on a low ring foot, hand-painted on the exterior with black decoration, the interior in polychrome painted, having abstract design in blue and ochre with turquoise accents, crack lure. Handcrafted antique ceramic dish, Fez, Morocco, Circa 1880, Museum quality piece. Antique Mokhfia (couscous bowl...

French pottery cider bottle from Normandy, end of 19th century. 13 Bottles available, sold separately. Different sizes.

A French faience Jaspe pitcher from the Savoie region, yellow glaze with green and brown glaze decoration, circa 1890.

French pottery cider bottle from Normandy, end of 19th century.  

A fine vintage Winchcombe press-molded baking dish decorated with trailed slip designs attributable to Michael Cardew (British, 1901-1983) and probably ...

1716 American Folk Art Pottery whimsical jug / pitcher Makers mark

French pottery cider bottle from Normandy, end of 19th century. 13 bottles available, sold separately. Different sizes.