Pair of Unusual Satsuma Vases, Japan, Early 20th Century

A beautiful small Japanese Satsuma ginger jar vase, circa early-20th century, Japan. Colors include cream, copper, green, blue, white, black, orange...

Late 19th / early 20th century Japanese, Meiji Satsuma vase with a double gourd form. The design incorporates underwater plants with golden Koi Car...

A very large and exuberantly decorated Japanese Satsuma millefleur covered vase, marked Satsuma, Showa period, mid 20th century, Japan. The large vase of attractive baluster form, with a slightly splayed foot, narrow waist, and tapered body with high shoulders and short neck. The vase topped by a domed cover with a large finial shaped like a hoju, the wish fulfilling jewel. The vase decorated all over in a dense field of flowering blossoms - peony, lotus, and chrysanthemum - in a design known as millefleur, or a thousand flowers. The flowers freely and cheerfully painted in various colors of red, white, orange, green, blue and yellow, with raised white enamels...

An Satsuma ceramic stone ware vase, circa 19th century, around the end of the Edo and the beginning of Meiji period. In the form of a Classic garlic bottle whose prototype was from China, the white bodied piece is decorated with an early form of kin nishikide, the so called golden brocade, a palette of iron-red, blue, green, yellow, purple and black with golden highlight. The over glazed enamel paint shows a group of robed figures in a garden setting with a lion and three tigers. A transparent overall glaze shows very fine crackles. The design is relatively sparse with plenty of negative space in contrast to the Satsuma production from the late 19th century, when the trend became fussy and overly glitz, due to the influence by the perceived western taste for the export market. This piece may still be made for export but its pattern was more influenced by both Kyoto Pottery and the Kano school of painting compared to the export ware by the end of the 19th century onward to the early 20th century. It was believed by many that this was a result of Satsuma potters visiting Kyoto in the late seventeenth century to learn over glaze painting techniques. There are some age glaze crackles especially around the foot. The piece is not signed in keeping with the earlier production before Satsuma ceramics...